Qatar, Pakistan hail 'encouraging progress' in U.S.-Iran peace talks
by Paul Godfrey · UPIJune 22 (UPI) -- Round one of two months of U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland aimed at reaching a final agreement to end the war wrapped up with "encouraging progress" on the Hormuz Strait and shoring up the cease-fire in Lebanon, regional intermediaries said Monday.
Qatar and Pakistan, which have been instrumental in facilitating the negotiations, issued a joint statement saying the sides had signed onto "a roadmap towards reaching a final deal within 60 days," kickstating talks on technical issues outlined in their Memorandum of Understanding expected to run through Friday.
"The Lake Lucerne Summit was conducted in a positive and constructive atmosphere. Encouraging progress has been made including the creation of a mechanism for further technical talks.
"Building on the MoU, the parties have agreed to the establishment of a High Level Committee, which will provide political oversight on the mediation. Chief negotiators will report regularly to the High Level Committee and lead working groups focused on nuclear, sanctions, and a monitoring and dispute resolution group to ensure the effective implementation of the MoU, and on other matters," read the statement.
"Technical talks will continue for the remainder of the week at the Burgenstock resort on all issues."
Critically, the initial talks at the weekend also saw the setting up of a Hormuz Strait "hotline" to avoid incidents or miscommunication, thereby enabling commercial vessels to transit the shipping lane safely, and a "deconfliction cell" to address on-off fighting in Lebanon that has continued since the MOU was signed last week.
Comprising the United States, Iran and the Lebanese Republic, the cell would "ensure the adherence of the termination of military operations in Lebanon as per the MoU."
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who led the U.S. delegation at the talks Sunday, hailed what he said was "a very good day," saying Tehran had agreed to allow inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to return to Iran.
"That is a major milestone for the American people and the first step in permanently denuclearizing or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran. And that's exactly what we wanted to do. That's exactly what we asked to happen," he told a news conference in Lucerne on Monday.
Vance said significant advances were also made "on other nuclear talks" -- but didn't make clear what he was referring to.
He said "a lot of good progress" had been made overall in pursuit of four aims the U.S. side wanted for the American people.
"First, we wanted to build a mechanism for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. It is open. We've seen, of course, gas prices and oil prices come down -- millions and millions of barrels of crude and natural gas flowing through the Strait of Hormuz that weren't flowing before.
"But we also wanted to make sure that we actually set up the coordination mechanism so that we could demine the straits of Hormuz so that when there are the conflicts that inevitably come up, we can make sure we work through them, rather than that leading to escalation. And that is exactly what we did yesterday," he said.
Vance said the deconfliction mechanism was to guard against flare-ups not just in Lebanon but across the region, broad swathes of which have also been impacted during the course of the conflict.
Global oil prices fell on the news out of Bürgenstock.
The benchmark Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate contracts were both down by more than $2 a barrel, changing hands in mid-afternoon trade in London at $78.42 and $74.52 respectively.