BUERGENSTOCK, Switzerland, June 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that talks with Iranian negotiators, mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, had "laid a very good foundation for a successful final deal."
Vance made the remarks after the first session of U.S.-Iran talks on implementing the interim peace deal between the two sides concluded at central Switzerland's Buergenstock resort.
Hours ahead of Vance's remarks, the Iranian IRNA state news agency reported that the Iranian delegation, headed by chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, left the Swiss venue to return to Tehran after 18 hours of "intensive" negotiations.
Vance said that the Strait of Hormuz is open and crude oil and natural gas are flowing through.
"We wanted to build a mechanism for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. It is open," said Vance.
Gas prices and oil prices come down, millions and millions of barrels of crude and natural gas are flowing through the Strait of Hormuz that weren't flowing before, he added.
The Strait of Hormuz handles roughly 20 percent of the world's seaborne oil flows. Iran tightened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz after Israel and the U.S. launched their joint strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. The U.S. imposed a naval blockade targeting ships going to and from Iran.
The situation began to improve after U.S. President Donald Trump announced during last week's Group of Seven (G7) summit in France that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Iran had been electronically signed and that the Strait of Hormuz would be "completely open" by June 19.
Under the MoU, the United States and Iran agreed to immediately and permanently cease military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and committed to negotiating a final peace agreement within 60 days.
However, the process faced a setback just one day before the Swiss talks, which had been rescheduled from Friday to Sunday, when Iran announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, citing what it described as U.S. and Israeli violations of the MoU.
Talks between the U.S. and Iranian negotiators, under Qatari and Pakistani mediation, kicked off on Sunday but were stalled Sunday night. The Iranian delegation reportedly left the negotiations in protest of U.S. President Trump's threat to launch further strikes against Iran.
However, Vance said Monday that the U.S. negotiating team has been working with the Iranians, the Qataris, and the Pakistanis and made great progress on Sunday.
The teams will continue to work at the technical level at Buergenstock and technical negotiations will continue over the weeks and days to come, he said.
"We laid a very good foundation for a successful final deal," said Vance, adding that there is still a lot to do regarding the nuclear and economic talks as well as demining the Strait of Hormuz to ensure that the flow of traffic continues to pick back up.
Vance also said that the Iranians have agreed to invite the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors back into their country.
Calling this "a major milestone," Vance said it is the first step in permanently denuclearizing or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi early on Monday wrote on X that tireless Pakistani and Qatari mediation has delivered major progress to end Lebanon War.
"Oil and petroleum exports are waived, blockade lifted, some frozen assets released, and major reconstruction and development plan launched for Iran," said Araghchi.
But he stressed that the first real test is the Lebanon de-confliction cell on ending the violence in Lebanon.
According to the Pakistan-Qatar joint statement, the parties agreed to create a de-confliction cell involving the parties and the Lebanese Republic, facilitated by the mediators, to ensure adherence to the termination of military operations in Lebanon, as per the MoU. ■
