US-Iran peace talks in Geneva called off, clouding prospects for lasting truce
By Nandita Bose, Yomna Ehab and Jonathan Allen
WASHINGTON/DUBAI, June 19 (Reuters) – Switzerland said U.S. talks with Iranian negotiators on a deal to end the Middle East conflict will not take place on Friday as Vice President J.D. Vance abandoned plans to travel to Geneva, raising uncertainty about whether a permanent ceasefire can be found.
“The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” a White House spokesman said in a statement Thursday night. Vance and the US delegation were ready to depart as soon as plans were finalized.
The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed that talks planned for the mountaintop resort of Burgenstock would not take place, but did not provide details.
There was no immediate response from Iran, which said it was ready to begin technical talks after Wednesday’s 14-point agreement extended a tenuous ceasefire for at least 60 days.
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency said before Vance’s statement on Thursday that Iranian negotiators first needed to see signs that the United States would implement the interim agreement and that there was no confirmation that the Iranian delegation would go to Geneva.
US officials had also stated that they would hold a formal signing ceremony for the US-Iran agreement in Switzerland, but Iran’s foreign ministry cast doubt on the plan, saying it was unnecessary after the presidents of both countries signed the agreement.
The war, which started on February 28 with US and Israeli air strikes against Iran, killed at least 7,000 people, caused energy prices to rise and shook global markets.
ISRAEL CONTINUES TO FIGHT
Israel, which was left out of the peace talks, moved away from the US-Iran deal and continued to fight against Iran’s ally Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, raising questions about whether the deal would hold.
In Washington, some of US President Donald Trump’s Republican allies in Congress questioned whether he was making too many concessions to end the conflict, unpopular with most Americans ahead of midterm elections in November.
Trump had vowed to end the war only with Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURVEY”.
But the memorandum signed with Iran instead provides for the easing of economic sanctions, unfreezes assets worth tens of billions of dollars, and provides an immediate exemption from US oil exports.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said that Trump signed the agreement “out of desperation” and signaled that it would not be easy to approach negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, among Trump’s reasons for starting the war.
“If the American side wants to be too demanding, we will not accept it,” he said in his message.
The deal gives negotiators 60 days to agree on the status of Iran’s nuclear program unless an extension is agreed upon, and creates a $300 billion reconstruction fund and other financial incentives for Iran.
Vance said Washington would also try to limit Iran’s long-range missiles.
The rising cost of the war also drew attention when the U.S. defense department told lawmakers it needed $80 billion to cover costs and some unrelated bills, the Wall Street Journal reported.
When the United States and Israel launched the war nearly four months ago, Trump said he aimed to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities to ensure it could never develop such weapons.
He also sought to end Tehran’s ability to attack its neighbors, prevent it from supporting allied anti-Israeli militants in the region, and enable the Iranians to overthrow their theocratic government.
None of these goals had been met when Trump signed the agreement; In this agreement, Iran reiterated its claim for decades that it would not acquire or develop nuclear weapons; It was a position that a number of US presidents doubted.
It also agreed that its stockpile of highly enriched uranium would be “down-blended” on-site and inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, rejecting Trump’s request to remove the material from the country.
U.S. officials say the talks could still lead to a strong deal on Iran’s nuclear program and are aimed at a better deal dating back to 2015 between Iran, the United States and other countries that Trump tore up in his first term.
But critics say Iran is now in a stronger position, resisting an attack by a superpower, demonstrating control of the Strait of Hormuz and gaining valuable exemptions from financial sanctions.
Iran has said it will continue to assert control over Hormuz jointly with Oman, its neighbor across the critical waterway, and plans to demand ship service fees that did not exist before the war, though not in the 60-day talks.
Oil prices fell on Friday as hopes for more supplies rose after tankers began reopening through the Bosphorus, which carried almost a fifth of global supplies of crude oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.
State news agency NNA said that at least 15 people died in new attacks carried out by Israel on Friday in Lebanon, where more than a million people were displaced due to the conflict, and at least 15 people died in attacks that Israel said were against Hezbollah targets.
That has raised doubts about how far Trump would go to force his wartime ally to halt the offensive he has vowed to end.
The agreement calls for a “permanent end” to the war in Lebanon, but Israel has said it does not intend to withdraw, instead depicting an expanded occupation zone on a new map.
Trump began openly criticizing Israel’s operations in Lebanon, opening one of the biggest rifts between the two countries in decades.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, Writing by Jonathan Allen, Andy Sullivan and Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Kate Mayberry and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
