JD Vance, US Vice President, arrived in Switzerland to begin peace negotiations with Iran

The Swiss Foreign Ministry published images of Vance’s entourage approaching the Bürgenstock complex, near Lake Lucerne, in the center of the country, where the round of negotiations will take place.

The American vice president’s delegation also includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump, who were already in Switzerland this weekend. Thus, Vance and his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, arrived at Emmen Air Base shortly before 6 a.m. local time.

During the afternoon of Saturday, the Iranian delegation also arrived in Switzerland, led by the chief negotiator and president of Parliament, Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf, and which also includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchí.

Along with the Swiss hosts, high-level delegations from the mediators Qatar and Pakistan are participating as mediators in the negotiations: in the latter case, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of the General Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir have traveled to Switzerland.

The negotiations take place in a context of high tension in the Middle East. The first days of that two-month period were complicated by the intense exchange of fire in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed political and military group Hezbollah, and by the Iranian military’s subsequent announcement that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas transits.

Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding this week that opens a 60-day truce period to reach a final agreement to end the war that began on February 28.

Negotiations in Bürgenstock were initially expected to begin on Friday, although Iran suspended them that day following Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.