Vice President JD Vance said “great progress” was being made in Sunday’s U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland and sought to downplay the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting in Lebanon.
“We’ve already made great progress over just the last few hours, and I expect it will make additional progress in the hours to come,” Vance told reporters in Bürgenstock.
The vice president said many of the U.S.’s goals have already been achieved, and Sunday’s negotiations were about what could be further accomplished through diplomacy.
Vice President JD Vance speaks next to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif prior to a quadrilateral meeting between the United States, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar at the Burgenstock luxury hotel complex overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 21, 2026, as part of high-level talks aimed at advancing a deal to end the Middle East conflict.
Urs Flueeler/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
“The opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the ending of the Iranian nuclear program, all of these things have already been accomplished,” Vance said. “The question before us now is how much more can we accomplish together?”
Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry, said earlier on Sunday that the “termination of the war on all fronts, including Lebanon” would be among the points discussed. Israel’s defense minister also said on Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces did not plan to leave the area they’re occupying in southern Lebanon.
Vance continued to minimize the impact of the ongoing conflict in Lebanon on the peace process, again insisting that conditions on the ground have been improving.
“We’ve seen great progress over the last just a couple of days in ensuring that the ceasefire holds in Lebanon,” he said.
-ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr and Hannah Demissie
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