“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. …”

https://mol.im/a/15916749

12131 will be along shortly to criticize the Daily Mail reporting.

There will be no deal. These people have been playing the same game since the seventh century. The west is infidel. Inferior. They view us as being worthy only of conversion or death. They view themselves as being superior, and therefore, they can lie to us with impunity.

Does this sound like a people ready for a deal?

https://x.com/LevinLiana1007/s.../2068391783508447734

quote:

Hezbollah is already recruiting fighters in Iran for $1000 a month. What do you think is going to happen once sanctions are lifted and billions of unfrozen assets poured in?

Duck season!

Rabbit season!

The strait is open!

The strait is closed!

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
12131 will be along shortly to criticize the Daily Mail reporting.

Why? There’s nothing in this article as written that deserves criticism. It just reports facts without slanting left or right or resorting to clickbait sensationalism. But when they deserve criticism, I won’t shy away from it.

Trump warns Iran to stop ‘proxies in Lebanon’ or US will hit Tehran 'very hard again'

https://ground.news/article/tr...ry-hard-again_c9211e

With these radical, extremist people calling the shots. I see this as inevitable.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: downtownv,

Iran says 'good progress' made from peace talks in Switzerland after delegation walked out when Trump threatened to 'blow the s*** out of them'

By ELIOT FORCE, US NEWS REPORTER and VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER and STEPHEN M. LEPORE, US SENIOR REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 09:05 EDT, 21 June 2026 | UPDATED: 22:59 EDT, 21 June 2026

Mediators 'delivered major progress' in Swiss-based peace talks between the US and Iran on Sunday, Iran's foreign minister claimed.

High-level negotiations in Switzerland seeking a permanent end to the Iran war ended early Monday, with lower-level talks planned for the rest of the week as Iran and the United States agreed to create a 'de-confliction cell' to address the fighting in Lebanon.

The progress comes despite Iranian officials abandoning talks in the wake of President Donald Trump's threat to 'blow the s*** out of them,' just hours after Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland for negotiations with Tehran.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed in a post to X that 'a major reconstruction and development plan for Iran has been launched.'

He also claimed that sanctions on Iranian oil have been waived and some of the country's assets had been unfrozen.

A statement from mediators Pakistan and Qatar said the cell would include the Lebanese government and would 'ensure the adherence of the termination of military operations in Lebanon.'

They also claimed Washington and Tehran have formed a 'line of communication' to manage the Strait of Hormuz to 'avoid incidents and miscommunication with the aim of safe passage for commercial vessels' during the ceasefire.

But it remains unclear whether that will be enough to stop fighting between the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah and Israel, which occupies Lebanon and insists it must maintain a free hand to attack militants who are launching attacks into northern Israel.

The talks marked the start of a 60-day diplomatic process that seeks to reach a permanent deal to end the Iran war. But the fighting in Lebanon remains one of the key sticking points.

Meanwhile, Iran insisted it had again shut the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf crucial to energy shipments, while the U.S. said traffic continued.

Pakistan, Qatar and Iran all have acknowledged the end of the first round of high-level talks. The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.

In his message, Araghchi said the first real test of the understandings reached would be a deconfliction method created over the fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran has tied success in the talks to the end of the fighting there. Israel insists it will continue to occupy Lebanese territory and that it must have a free hand to fight Hezbollah, which has launched attacks into northern Israel.

The president threatened Iran to restart his bombing campaigns on the country through profanity-laced phone calls and posts on social media while Vance began negotiations.

However, a US official told the Daily Mail that discussions in Switzerland are expected to continue into the night with the Qatari and Pakistani delegations serving as mediators.

Tehran officials backed out of negotiations earlier on Sunday after discussions entered a 'difficult phase' after just 80 minutes of talks, according to Iranian state media.

Tehran's chief negotiator Mohammed Ghalibaf also warned that the US should be cautious with its statements: 'We do not take American threats into account.'

'They would do better to be careful with their statements; our armed forces are ready to respond to them in a different manner. No matter what they say, we are the ones who act.'

The collapse in talks comes shortly after the US and Iran signed a fragile interim deal on Wednesday to end the war. It gives the two countries 60 days to negotiate a deal to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and establish a path forward on Iran's nuclear program.

The deal also calls for an end to fighting in Lebanon - a key demand from Iran listed in the first paragraph of the agreement.

But only days after signing the agreement, it is being stress-tested after fighting escalated in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.

In response, Iran's military soon announced that the Strait of Hormuz was once again closed. The country said that resolving the situation in Lebanon would become a part of the negotiations in Switzerland.

Vance was attempting to downplay the intensity of the fighting in Lebanon during Sunday morning's negotiations, minutes before Trump renewed threats of bombing Iran if the country does not rein in Hezbollah and the militant group's strikes against Israel.

Trump disclosed that he told Iranian officials: 'You close the strait and you won't have a country.

'You won't even make it back to your f****** country ... we'll take over the rest of the country,' he added, according to Fox News.

'We may take over the Strait, if we have to. I'll blow the s*** out of them.'

In a Truth Social post, the president wrote: 'Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don't, we'll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!'

Hours before, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian emphasized that Iran will maintain its right to a nuclear program.

'What is certain is that we will never back down from the right to enrich uranium, and the other side is also forced to accept it,' Pezeshkian said on Sunday, according to Iran's state media.

During an interview with Fox News Sunday morning, Trump shot back and said that Pezeshkian 'better watch his mouth.' He also told Iran that they won't have a country if the Strait of Hormuz is closed.

According to the Telegraph discussions did not go on long enough to speak about Iran's nuclear program.

Iran said talks, including negotiations over its nuclear program, could not move forward until the fighting in Lebanon comes to an end.

Trump also criticized Israel, saying the country 'can't do anything without blowing up buildings' in its fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A CBS News Poll released Sunday revealed that 69 percent of Americans believe that Iran's nuclear program has not been permanently stopped, with 59 percent sharing a belief that Iran will not stop threatening its neighbors in the region in the coming months.

Only 22 percent of respondents noted that they think the US is getting the better end of the deal, while 37 percent believe that it was better for Iran.

Vance, who arrived in Switzerland with his pregnant wife Usha Vance around 6am on Sunday, was accompanied by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, for Sunday's talks.

Witkoff and Kushner were on the ground in Switzerland ahead of Vance to begin sifting through the technical details of the nuclear talks.

A renewed ceasefire in Lebanon, brokered on Saturday, appeared to be holding up as Vance began discussions with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir, who has served as a key intermediary throughout the conflict.

'What's up, man! Good to see you,' Vance said as he warmly greeted Munir, who serves as Pakistan's army chief.

Later, he spoke to reporters and said that conflict between Israel and Hezbollah should not upend the recently signed deal between the US and Iran.

'We've seen great progress over the last couple of days in ensuring that the cease-fire holds in Lebanon. These things are always a little bit messy,' Vance said.

The vice president also said that the US is 'willing to fundamentally transform our relationship' with Iran if the country is 'willing to give up being a driver of regional instability, if they are willing to give up nuclear weapons ambitions in the long term.'

Sharif met separately with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who is leading Tehran's delegation, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Mediators from Qatar were also on hand at the mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne.

Rafael Grossi, chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, met with Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis on the sidelines of the gathering.

The agency had monitored the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated between the US and Iran under the Democratic Obama administration. Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in 2018.

The new deal between the US and Iran is complicated by the fact that neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a signatory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep his forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt its attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing from Lebanon.

Iran's main focus during the negotiations will be the ongoing war between Israel and Lebanon, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iran's state news agency.

Iran is insisting that the deal's implementation start with the part of the deal that calls for a cessation of all wars, including between Israel and Hezbollah. Baghaei said the US 'has been unable or unwilling' to hold Israel to the ceasefire.

Iran is cautiously approaching the negotiations given its previous experience with the US negotiations on the nuclear issue, which twice in the past year have been interrupted by massive strikes against the country.

'The implementation of any document is more important than its signing,' Baghaei said Sunday.

Vance had originally been slated to be on the ground at the Bürgenstock resort near Lucerne on Friday, but his departure from the United States was delayed after fighting escalated in Lebanon and Iranian officials canceled plans to attend the talks.

US Central Command has disputed Iran's claim that it once again shuttered the Strait of Hormuz and said US forces continued to monitor the situation to ensure traffic continues to flow through the waterway.

The vice president has said that millions of barrels of oil have moved through the strait in recent days.

While Vance said he planned to be in Switzerland for just 'a day or two,' leaving much of the detailed negotiations to be spearheaded by Witkoff and Kushner, his role in the talks has heightened scrutiny of the vice president at a time when he is actively considering a 2028 presidential campaign.

Trump and Vance have come under searing criticism from parts of their own party for the deal.

Republican hard-liners have unfavorably likened it to a nuclear agreement signed by the Obama administration that Trump and the GOP have insisted did nothing to actually terminate Iran's nuclear program.

The recent agreement signed by Trump and Iranian President Pezeshkian immediately allows Tehran to sell its oil freely and paves the way for Iran to tap into billions of dollars in assets that are currently frozen.

It also calls for Iran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, believed to be buried under nuclear sites that were targeted in US strikes last summer.

The agreement says commercial vessels can pass through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days without a charge, but does not preclude future fees imposed by Iran.

Trump made his own threat on Saturday to levy U.S. tolls on the strait if there is no deal with Iran in 60 days, insisting in a social media post that the money would be for 'services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East.'

My fear is that they are going to slow walk this until reserves run out. Then we will see what the real agenda is

Yeah, too bad we have no idea what we're doing. Maybe if we had had a chance to see how the Iranians act, but what with their behavior being so new to us and all...

We need guidance from authorities. Get Obama on the phone.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
.......We need guidance from authorities. Get Obama on the phone.

Such a good thing he never left Washington DC! Obama can send an advisor or a lobbyist over to the White House in a few minutes!

Still grinds my gears that Obama never retired and went back to Chicago. He not only felt the need to try keep his hand on the steering wheel, but to stay in DC and be so obvious about it.

Here is a rare opinion peace praising the Iran deal:

New Iran Deal is a masterclass by President, Vance, and administration
This deal, led by the peace-through-strength foreign policy, restores deterrence and positions the United States to dominate future negotiations in the Middle East.

by: Kenny Cody 06/19/2026

"Regardless of the naysayers, neoconservatives, and progressive leftist shills using social and mainstream media to portray America as weak for the thousandth time, President Trump's Iran deal and the communication of the deal by Vice President JD Vance has been a masterclass in geopolitics and media dexterity. President Trump's preliminary MOU with Iran took pressure, pragmatism, forceful language, and a militaristic strategy to secure, but it was all worth it. The priority of using peace through strength, the ever-powerful Trumpist foreign policy mantra, proved yet again that President Trump is the best negotiator in modern American or world politics.

Using bombs to force conversation is certainly an option, but it ended up being the best solution for all sides of the war in Iran. While Obama's Iran deal funded radical Islamic terrorism and the spreading of Sharia Law throughout the globe, Trump's deal utilized tariffs, bombs, and blockades to bring Iran up the ramp and into 12 rounds with the 45th and 47th President of the United States.

Cash pallets and sunset clauses are the way of governance for weak Democrats and progressives that want America to crumble, but pragmatic nationalist conservatism is the pathway to peace, prosperity, and an avoidance of the endless war regimes of years' past. While Trump approved operations that extracted concessions from the Iranians, such as enriched uranium stockpiles and IAEA access, he ensured our military was not going to get itself involved in a forever war patterned with blank checks, blood, and cash in the pockets of the military industrial complex. Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and master communicator JD Vance helped this deal come to fruition, and the loyalties to the America First mindset were kept in plain view by the entire Trump Administration through a lengthy, robust negotiation process.

The wins for America through this deal helped ensure the reopening of shipping lanes, cheaper gas and goods through waived sanctions, and a three-hundred-billion-dollar reconstruction framework that will shift the burden onto regional partners rather than on the backs of American taxpayers. Throughout this entire negotiation, as Vice President Vance stated, America held "all the cards."

America gets to oversee any development Iran dares lift a finger on (be that enrichment or otherwise), Iran gets no nuclear weapons, and a ceasefire is guaranteed without any American soldier ever setting foot to fight in an endless war that neoconservatives clamored for and one that leftists wanted to happen so they could blame Trump and Vance for it.

Now, the fun part has begun after the peace has been made: Watching JD Vance torch critics using the vehicle of mainstream media. Whether it be on the liberal feminist bastion that is "The View", on various conservative podcasts, or even taking White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's place answering questions from across the media landscape, Vice President Vance has defended the deal from all angles with class, intelligence, and pragmatic common sense. Vance knows that America's alliances are ironclad, but blind escalation can turn a war into a never-ending conflict that burns taxpayer money and, more importantly, costs Americans their lives overseas. There have been side agreements and compliance with the Iranians, per Vance, and if the Trump Administration has shown the United States (and the rest of the world) anything, it is that they will never be outdone when it comes to a deal for their nation.

The Trump-Vance leadership from this White House proves that the Republican Party and the country, in turn, are trending in a positive direction. This deal, led by the peace-through-strength foreign policy, restores deterrence and positions the United States to dominate future negotiations in the Middle East. America First conservatives should always value results over rhetoric, and with this deal by President Trump and Vice President Vance, our homeland will remain safe, economically prosperous, and home to the greatest military in the world."

LINK

Is anyone surprised that Iran threw a hissy fit and left? It’s not like they had any intentions of trying to reach a deal.

U.S. Allows Iran to Sell Oil in Dollars for First Time in Decades

ZURICH—The U.S. cleared the way for Iran to sell oil in dollars, including to American buyers, a major turnaround from years in which it used a shadowy network of sanctioned tankers to sell its crude, primarily to China.

The announcement by the Treasury Department waives longstanding sanctions on those sales for two months while talks to formalize the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and address the issues of Iran’s nuclear program and further sanctions relief proceed.

Rest of article: https://www.wsj.com/world/midd...-in-209db17c?mod=mhp

Even if temporary, this allows for a huge influx of offshore earnings to flow in. For a country that is the #1 destabilizing force in the ME, this is an interesting development.

Of course you think the Trump administration is wrong for allowing this temporary waiver during negotiations.

Treaty negotiation requires concessions from all sides.

Correct, I think it’s wrong. I might offer it as a possibility AFTER negotiations, but this allows them to bring in millions/billions of dollars legally in that time period. EDIT: $14bn at current oil prices, according to several news sources.

We shall see how it plays out. I think Trump has been dealt a horrible hand, and is doing as well as he can; however, with actions such as these, then in the future any Iran action that is hostile is “owned” by Trump, for better or for worse.

Well, as I said before, it's unfortunate he doesn't have your counsel. You could straighten everything out PDQ.

Para, that’s insulting.

I think Trump has done a bunch of things right, and support him.

Just because I think he’s handling a situation poorly, all of sudden I am some sort of savant with a better plan?

Midnight Hammer was an incredible accomplishment, and he has my full support for that. This time around, I’m not sure what advice he received, but by his own admission he needed to avoid “economic catastrophe”.

That means that he was unprepared for this contingency, which meant someone was advising him poorly.

I don’t know if you remember the first term, but Trump has a history of having poor advisors in his circle (hello, Mike Pence, the “Kraken” idiot, and a billion other RINO or worse types - Bolton, Tillerson, Mattis).

Trump has screwed the pooch several times, most recently in Canada. He is human, and makes mistakes.

If the rule is we cannot criticize a decision made by Trump, I am fine with that.

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:
If the rule is we cannot criticize a decision made by Trump, I am fine with that.

Would you be fine with a rule that your criticism cannot be criticized?

You made me laugh - you got me there!

I see your point para, and I yield.

I do hope this works out in Iran, but I’m very pessimistic at this point.

Thank you