Vance FINALLY heads to Switzerland for Iran negotiations after his planned trip was abruptly canceled at the eleventh hour

JD Vance has finally departed for Switzerland to lead a new round of talks with Iran about its nuclear program after being delayed a day. 

The Vice President was shown boarding Air Force Two on his way to Switzerland in a video from his press secretary Saturday afternoon. 

A high-level Iranian team arrived in Switzerland on ​Saturday for peace talks, Iranian state media reported and Pakistan said will begin on Sunday. 

Negotiators would likely have a ‘couple days of talks,’ Vance told reporters before boarding a plane at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

‘I can only be there for a day or two,’ Vance said. ‘I think we’re going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue.’ 

The Iranian delegation was led ‌by chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and included Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as well as senior security, central bank and oil officials, Iranian media said.

Vance has been seen as Donald Trump’s point man on the negotiations, dating back to failed talks in Islamabad during the earlier months of the war in Iran, which was launched by the US and Israel in late February. 

Although the U.S. and Iran had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire while negotiations take place, Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday declared the Strait of Hormuz shut. 

This could complicate talks in which both sides seek to advance an interim deal brokered by Pakistan and signed on Wednesday by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to end ​their almost four-month war. 

The IRGC warned ships would be at risk if they approached the waterway, a vital conduit for global oil and gas supplies. Iran cited what it called Israeli ‘crimes’ in Lebanon and ​a US violation of commitments to establish a ceasefire. 

The Islamic Republic warned all vessels not to approach the shipping lane, which plays a vital role in global trade, and blamed continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

US Central Command said 55 merchant ships had transited the strait on Saturday, moving large amounts of cargo and ⁠more than 17 million barrels of oil to global markets, and that U.S. forces would ensure the flow of ships continued.

Trump in a social media post on Saturday wrote that no toll ​will be charged for passage through the Strait during or after the 60-day ceasefire — unless the U.S. imposes one should peace talks fail.

Vance, in an interview with Fox News, said he was confident the ceasefire agreed in Washington’s 14-point deal with Tehran would hold, and that he had seen no evidence that the strait was closed. 

Trump left open the possibility of a Hormuz toll levied by the United States ‘for services ​rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East’ if a peace deal is not completed.

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, accused the US on X of failing to implement the first clause of its 14-point interim deal with Iran, which includes a ceasefire ‘on all fronts’, including Lebanon.

He said that, as long as the agreement was only on paper, the flow of Middle East energy would remain halted.

The Lebanon truce appeared fragile as Israeli forces and ​the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked each other.

One of the conditions for starting 60 days of US-Iranian talks on Tehran’s nuclear program and other issues is a halt to fighting in Lebanon.

However, Lebanese Civil Defence said that 20 people had been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Saturday, hours after a truce there took effect.

Israel said it was responding to attacks ​from Hezbollah, while the Iran-backed group said it would ​not allow Israel “freedom of movement” in Lebanon.

Israel, left ⁠out of the talks, says it is not party to the Iran-U.S. deal, and will keep its forces in the Lebanese territory it occupies.

A U.S. official had said the truce took effect at 4pm on Friday, and Israeli and Hezbollah sources confirmed the agreement to Reuters.

The Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported that ​the prime minister and defence minister had instructed the military to hold fire in Lebanon, but that it would not withdraw from areas it had captured.

This is a developing story.