Iran-US war latest: Trump threatens ‘Guardian Angel’ tolls on Strait of Hormuz after Tehran declares it shut again – The Independent
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Vance joins other US officials in Zurich to hammer out peace deal terms with a battery of Tehran’s leaders
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US vice president JD Vance has landed in Switzerland this morning to help formally launch Washington’s negotiations with Iranian leaders over curbing Tehran’s nuclear program and building out the fragile interim deal to end the war in Iran.
Tehran’s negotiators, including parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, along with central bank and oil officials, are already in the Swiss city of Zurich.
The talks will kickstart at the Burgenstock luxury hotel complex in Switzerland shortly.
This comes as US president Donald Trump has threatened to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz if the deal with Iran is not completed.
Iran said it would close the crucial waterway to tankers, citing alleged violations of the ceasefire by the US and Israel.
The US military had said that traffic continued to flow through the Strait and the US is monitoring the situation to ensure that continues.
But Trump took to social media to insist that there should be no tolls during the cease fire period “unless they are imposed by and for” the US “for services rendered as the Guardian Angel” to the Middle East.
Israeli strikes in Gaza on Saturday killed at least six people, including two children and a cameraman with broadcaster Al Jazeera, according to Palestinian health officials.
The first strike on Saturday hit an apartment in Gaza City around 2am, according to the ministry.
At the site, an Associated Press reporter saw rubble and chunks of concrete stained with blood.
The bodies of two sisters, four-year-old Zina and 14-year-old Lana, were sent to Shifa Hospital’s morgue, where they lay in white hospital bags, surrounded by family members.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
On Saturday evening, three Israeli strikes killed four people and wounded at least a dozen others.
The first hit a house in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp without warning, killing three people, including Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah, according to Al-Aqsa hospital. Al Jazeera confirmed Wishah’s death.
Wishah’s brother Mohamed, who was a correspondent for Al Jazeera, was killed in an Israeli strike in April.
US vice president JD Vance has arrived in Switzerland to help formally launch negotiations with Iranian leaders over curbing Tehran’s nuclear program and building out the fragile interim deal to end the war in Iran.
He departed the US just after Iranian state TV said Iran’s negotiators had arrived in Switzerland.
Tehran’s negotiators include parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, along with central bank and oil officials.
Vance will be joining special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, president Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who have already been on the ground to begin sifting through the technical details of the nuclear talks.
The Democrats are condemning the visible breaking points of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding.
Johnny Olszewski, a Democratic congressman from Maryland, said Trump’s “war of choice” was a “disaster”.
“The dressed up ceasefire masquerading as a ‘deal’ is already falling apart,” he wrote in a post on X. “Americans deserve better.”
Pramila Jayapal, another Democratic member of Congress, underlined the cost of the war on Iran and said Republicans had cut Medicare, a US health programme, to fund this conflict.
“They are not confused about what we want. They just work for someone else,” Jayapal said.
A high-stakes meeting in Zurich may be brief.
Before leaving for Switzerland on Saturday, US Vice President JD Vance say he expects to spend “a day or two.”
“I can only be there for a day or two,” he told reporters before boarding a small jet bound for Switzerland
“I think we’re going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue,” he said.
The US military has denied Iran’s claims that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, saying the critical waterway remained open and that US forces were monitoring the situation to ensure that continued.
“Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz,” US Central Command spokesperson Navy Captain Tim Hawkins told Reuters.
“Traffic continues to flow, and US forces are monitoring the situation to ensure this remains the case.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared the Strait of Hormuz shut earlier on Saturday and warned ships not to approach the waterway, casting new doubt on the future of a ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran meant to pave the way for in-depth peace talks.
Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir will participate in the technical-level talks being held in Burgenstock, Switzerland on 21 June, the PM’s office announced yesterday.
The country’s foreign ministry said US and Iranian representatives would participate in the meeting, along with mediators from Pakistan and Qatar.
In his post, Donald Trump has complained that Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni would not allow the US to use Italy’s landing strips or runways during the Iran war even though the US is a leader in defence spending among Nato allies.
“She wouldn’t even let us use Italy’s landing strips or runways, a great logistical inconvenience, and this despite the fact the U.S. contributes hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year to protect Italy, and other “so-called” NATO Allies. Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her “numbers up.” No thanks!!! President DJT,” Trump said in a post on TruthSocial.
This has been a long-standing complaint about the military alliance and one that Trump is raising again before his White House meeting Wednesday with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte and the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey.
US vice president JD Vance said he was confident the ceasefire would hold and that he had seen no evidence that the Strait of Hormuz was closed.
“We’re going to go after that enriched stockpile of uranium,” Vance told Fox News in an interview.
“We’re going to try to reset the situation that we have, so that the Iranians don’t just have a destroyed nuclear program now, but so that we can say with some confidence, through a combination of inspections and verification, that they’re never going to be able to rebuild that program,” he said.
The US vice president left for Switzerland shortly after 4pm ET (2100 GMT) on Saturday.
“Negotiators would likely have a couple days of talks”, he told reporters before boarding a plane at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
“I think we’re going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue,” he said.
An agreement to end the war in Iran has many points of vulnerability. Mary Dejevsky breaks them all down:
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