For the Trump administration, Vance appears to have reached a much-needed truce to calm growing political anxiety at home ahead of the November midterm elections, with the vice president’s political future in jeopardy.
TOI correspondent from Washington: US Vice President J.D. Vance emerged from two days of talks with Iranian leaders in the Swiss Alps over the weekend, claiming a “major achievement” in convincing Tehran to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to return to the country, reopening a path for international monitoring of its nuclear programme.
Shortly after, the Trump administration lifted oil sanctions on Iran, issuing a 60-day waiver allowing the sale and transfer of Iranian crude and petroleum products through August, a concession intended to keep negotiations alive.In his remarks at the end of the first round of talks, Vance also emphasized — while responding to criticism that the Trump administration gave the store to Tehran — that if the freeze on Iranian assets is ultimately lifted, that money will be used to buy American agricultural products.“If the freeze on Iranian assets is lifted, it will make American farmers richer and help feed the Iranian people,” Vance said, crediting Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner with the idea. He also said that his initial engagement with the Iranians would be followed by technical-level talks during the 60-day ceasefire period to reach a final agreement. For the Trump administration, Vance appears to have reached a much-needed truce to calm growing political anxiety at home ahead of the November midterm elections, with the vice president’s political future in jeopardy.
But to critics, the whole thing looked suspiciously like a rediscovery of an arrangement that already existed, with experts noting that IAEA inspections were part of the Obama-era JCPOA deal before President Trump tore it up in 2018.
“Next week, Trump will announce that he invented the wheel — a round wheel the likes of which the world has never seen before. And the week after that, sliced bread,” one analyst quipped. The sarcasm reflects broader skepticism surrounding the Swiss talks, where the atmosphere, as conveyed by images that appeared on social media, was far from warm and fuzzy.Body language alone has provided enough material for diplomatic lip-readers to keep busy for days. Vance led the US delegation into a meeting room crowded first with Pakistani and Qatari interlocutors. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi later arrived, met briefly with Pakistani officials and then left, amid reports that they turned down the opportunity to take a joint photo with the Americans due to President Trump’s provocative statements and continued Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
The ignored handshakes, the threat of withdrawal, and the distinctly frosty exchanges did not signal the dawn of a major reconciliation.After nearly 80 minutes of discussions, Iranian negotiators reportedly suspended the talks in protest of Trump’s recent threats on social media regarding Lebanon before eventually returning to the table after Vance made clear that Trump’s comments were in response to Iranian provocations.
At the end of further discussions, Vance was able to claim tangible progress amid general skepticism in Washington, where many critics are sharpening their knives waiting for the mission to fail.
While Trump and Vance supporters saw an elegant solution in unfrozen Iranian money buying American wheat, corn and soybeans rather than flowing to the military rearmament that Washington fears, policy experts were less impressed, recalling Vance’s warnings after the October 7 attacks, when he said that “money is fungible” and that financial aid to Tehran in one area could indirectly strengthen the IRGC.This apparent shift has led some conservatives to perform rhetorical exercises. Adding to the controversy, the US Treasury Department on Monday moved with remarkable speed to show Washington was serious, issuing a broad 60-day sanctions waiver allowing the sale and transfer of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products through August, a major concession aimed at keeping negotiations alive.
The exemption covers banking, insurance, transportation and related commercial activities and represents one of the largest reliefs of sanctions imposed on Iran in years. For Israel and many of its supporters in Washington, the announcement came with bunker-busting precision. The pro-Israel constituency in the United States is still reeling from the new Trump-Vance formula that says every country in the region has legitimate security concerns and has the right to defend itself, and that Iran also has the right to maintain conventional ballistic missile capabilities under a future settlement.The broader picture is that Vance appears to have salvaged something from talks that repeatedly threatened to collapse under the weight of the MAGA boss’s social media grenades. Throughout the negotiations, Trump continued to fire at Iran and threaten further chaos, sending its delegates into bouts of exasperation. At one point, according to Vance, the Iranians were on the verge of withdrawing completely, but he was able to restore the situation.
Behind the scenes, two unlikely diplomatic facilitators helped keep the process on life support: Pakistan and Qatar. Both countries acted as mediators, although each had many critics in the United States.
