admin The United States temporarily suspended sanctions on Iranian oil on Monday after Vice President JD Vance said Iran would allow UN nuclear inspectors to return to the country, following talks in Switzerland.
Last week, Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding laying the groundwork for the negotiations, after nearly 40 days of fighting that were followed by a shaky ceasefire.
“We laid a very good foundation for a successful final deal,” Vance told reporters at Switzerland’s luxury Burgenstock resort, adding that “the final deal is the house… We haven’t built the house, but we’ve laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the American people”.
Separately, the US Treasury said it was temporarily lifting sanctions on Iran to allow it to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through August 21.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cited Tehran’s commitment to “free and open transit” in the Strait of Hormuz and permission for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to enter their country as a reason for pausing the sanctions.
The negotiations aim to tackle some of the most intractable issues that have dogged US-Iranian relations for decades, including Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Iranian foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said “a very brief discussion took place regarding the nuclear issue, but there was no discussion of details” and that nuclear talks had not begun.
Vance, meanwhile, said Tehran had agreed to invite IAEA inspectors “back to their country”, calling it “a major milestone… and the first step in permanently denuclearising” Iran.
Tehran suspended some cooperation and blocked IAEA inspectors from accessing key nuclear sites bombed by the US and Israel in 2025’s 12-day war, but inspectors continued to visit Iran, last doing so in November.
‘Classic Trump deal’ As part of the deal, Tehran is set to get some form of sanctions relief from Washington, as well as the unfreezing of assets.
Vance insisted assets had not yet been unfrozen and that, if they were, they would be used to buy US goods such as soy beans and would not fund terrorism.
He called it “a classic Trump deal, where if Iranian assets are ever unfrozen, they’re going to go to make American farmers richer and to feed the Iranian people”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, posted on social media: “Oil and petrochem exports are waived, blockade lifted, some frozen assets released, and major reconstruction & development plan launched for Iran.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to start a trip to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain, to discuss the deal and “efforts to secure full and free safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” his spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
Iran’s negotiating delegation, including Ghalibaf and Araghchi, meanwhile left Tehran on Monday, headed for Omani capital Muscat to discuss “joint efforts to stabilise Iranian arrangements for managing the Strait of Hormuz”, according to state news agency IRNA.
‘Roadmap’ Tehran and Washington have set up communication lines to end the fighting in Lebanon and to keep the vital Strait of Hormuz open, mediators said.
Iran closed the strait, through which much of the world’s oil and gas travels in peacetime, early in the war, sending economic shockwaves across the globe.
Before the conflict began, there was free international passage through the strait, but Tehran appears keen to monetise the waterway as part of any deal.
Tracking data on Monday showed vessels were still transiting the strait, despite Iran saying on Saturday it had closed it again over Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
Mediators Pakistan and Qatar said the negotiators reached agreement on a “roadmap towards reaching a final deal within 60 days”, with technical talks to continue for the rest of the week at the Swiss resort.
“Encouraging progress has been made,” they said, including a contact channel set up to “avoid incidents and miscommunication” in the Strait of Hormuz.
LebanonIn the weeks and days before the US-Iran talks, the war in Lebanon between Israel and Iran’s close ally Hezbollah threatened to collapse the ceasefire, though the country has been relatively calm since Saturday evening.
A “de-confliction cell”, between the parties and the Lebanese authorities has been agreed to prevent fighting from erupting again.
Israeli leaders have nonetheless expressed deep misgivings over the deal, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday insisted Israeli troops “have full freedom of action to thwart any direct or developing threat” in south Lebanon.
The overall death toll from the fighting in Lebanon has now surpassed 4,100, the health ministry said.
A survey by the UN Development Programme and Lebanon’s government-linked National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) said damage to buildings in south Lebanon in the latest fighting was estimated at around $1.38 billion.
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