President Donald Trump announced “major combat operations” against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.
Delegations from the United States and Iran arrived over the weekend at the Bürgenstock resort in Switzerland, where they entered negotiations aimed at a war-ending deal based on a memorandum of understanding signed last week by both countries.
In addition to speaking with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Secretary of State Rubio also held a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to discuss “solidifying” a ceasefire and “future talks,” a U.S. official confirmed.
As a result of those calls, the U.S. “started a monitoring mechanism via CENTCOM so that our policymakers have real time and accurate information about fighting in Lebanon,” the official said.
The official also confirmed that another round of talks between representatives of Israel and Lebanon are set to take place in Washington this week over the course of three days.
-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston
Vice President JD Vance left the first days of technical negotiations with Iran projecting optimism, telling reporters as he left Switzerland that he felt “great about the progress that we made.”
“The fundamental thing we got is, No. 1, we set up the mechanism to ensure not only the Straits of Hormuz are open, but will stay open,” Vance said.
“… No. 2, we actually set up the right mechanism to ensure the regional cease fire to manage the inevitable conflicts that will come up,” Vance said.
Vance reiterated his earlier comments in which he said Iran will be allowing IAEA inspectors into the country.
Vance said the U.S. will have to “see” what Iran “actually let[s] the inspectors do” once they are in Iran.
“We have the Iranians allowing weapons inspectors, nuclear inspectors into their country for the first time in a long time. We’re obviously going to bolster those inspections, that inspection regime, to make sure they can never have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said.
Inspections were part of the Obama-era agreement that Trump canceled during his first term, after which Iran stopped letting international inspectors in.
Credit: Yahoo News