President Donald Trump on Sunday posted that the US will resume attacks on Iran unless the Iranians can keep their Hezbollah allies in Lebanon from causing violence. His warning came while US vice president J.D. Vance has been looking to to get negotiations back on track, meeting with top Iranian officials in an effort to build out the interim deal to end the war in Iran reached by the two sides last week.
"Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!"
Meanwhile, Vance was expected to meet with Tehran's negotiators, including parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, at a Swiss mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne. Mediators from Pakistan and Qatar were also in the room for the direct engagement.
"The technical negotiations may not solve every disagreement, but it will allow us to sit together as teams for the first time in history," Vance said.
Speaking at the start of the talks, Vance said the discussions may not resolve every disagreement between the two sides, but would mark a historic step forward.
Iranian officials appeared to avoid being seen during a brief appearance by Vance in front of reporters before the start of the talks. IRIB, the Iranian state broadcaster, announced the four-way talks had begun shortly after Vance delivered a statement to media and took a couple of questions from reporters.
The US side is looking to get Iran locked into negotiations over its nuclear program.
But the on-again, off-again conflict in Lebanon, between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, continues to threaten to derail the effort for the US to win concessions from Tehran on its nuclear program and keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
Iran's main focus during negotiations on Sunday would be the ongoing war between Israel and Lebanon, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iran's state news agency ahead of the meeting with Vance.