The United States special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are already in Switzerland for the first round of negotiations with Iran, scheduled for this Sunday, US Vice President JD Vance told Fox on Saturday.

“Jared and Steve have been on the ground for several hours, dealing with some technical aspects of this negotiation,” Vance said in an interview with the US network before Iran announced it was closing the Strait of Hormuz due to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

During the conversation with Fox, the vice president assured that more than 16 million barrels of oil left the Strait of Hormuz this Friday, a “record” compared to the period before the start of the conflict, he said.

Vance announced that he plans to join the negotiations with Iran “in the coming days,” in which government representatives from Pakistan and Qatar will also participate.

The vice president spoke about the need to control Iran’s enriched uranium reserves, a request that Trump has expressly made for the talks that should result in a definitive nuclear agreement before August 19.

Swiss national television indicated that the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, would be present in the Swiss town of Bürgenstock, where the meetings are scheduled.

For his part, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, departed for Switzerland this Saturday to demand that the United States uphold the memorandum of understanding which, according to Tehran, has been violated by Israel’s attacks against Lebanon.

“In Switzerland, talks are planned to demand compliance with the other party’s commitments and to clarify how they intend to fulfill their obligations,” the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Ismail Baghaei, told state television.

Baghaei denied that during this visit the parties would engage in negotiations to reach a definitive agreement and affirmed that these talks could only begin once the implementation of the obligations stipulated in the memorandum commences, especially the end of the war on all fronts, including Lebanon.

“The first clause is the most important part of the memorandum of understanding, and the other party has not fulfilled its commitment to compel the Zionist regime (Israel) to cease its attacks against Lebanon,” he maintained.

Baghaei warned that the memorandum constitutes an indivisible whole and that the non-fulfillment of one of its parts would jeopardize the entire process.

“If one part of the other party’s commitments is not executed, the entire memorandum of understanding will be affected,” he noted, before urging the United States to take the necessary measures to implement the agreement “as soon as possible.”

The spokesman reiterated that Iranian policy is based on the principle of “commitment for commitment” and assured that the Islamic Republic would spare no effort to implement the memorandum reached after weeks of negotiations and international mediation.

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