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US president’s threats come as Vance joins other US officials in Zurich to hammer out peace deal terms with a battery of Tehran’s leaders
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Iran hit back at Donald Trump on Monday after the US president threatened to “take over the rest of the country” if the Strait of Hormuz is closed again.
“You make threats; we take action,” Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, wrote on social media in apparent reference to Trump.
“The Strait of Hormuz is neither your personal casino nor the backyard of modern-day pirates; these are Iranian sovereign waters, and the ultimate decision rests with the noble people of Iran and its brave armed forces.”
Iran lifted its effective blockade of Hormuz last week after agreeing with the US to extend a ceasefire to allow for peace negotiations, but Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday declared the waterway shut once again, in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
The US president said in response he had warned Iranian officials that “you close [the strait] and you won’t have a country”, Fox News’s Trey Yingst reported on Sunday.
High stakes talks aimed at finalising a deal to end the war are meanwhile expected to continue through the week, after a “difficult” start that saw Iranian negotiators walk out over Trump’s “insults”.
Oil prices fell and stocks rose on Monday after negotiators said that “great progress” had been made in talks with Iran and the United States, despite a growing war of words between Donald Trump and Iranian officials.
Brent crude futures were down 0.7% to $80.07 a barrel after mediators from Pakistan and Qatar said the parties had agreed over the weekend on a roadmap to reach a final deal within 60 days.
Optimism around negotiations saw stock prices rise in Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei climbed 1.8% this morning, while Chinese blue chips stocks were up 1.6%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.6%.
JD Vance told reporters in Switzerland on Monday that Iran had agreed to admit inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as talks continue.
He said the development “is probably what we’re most excited about as Americans”.
“That is a major milestone for the American people, and the first step in permanently denuclearizing or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran, and that’s exactly what we wanted to do,” he added.
Iran will agree to have major weapons inspections long into the future, according to US president Donald Trump.
He wrote in a post on Truth Social: “Everybody is fully aware that Iran will agree to have Major Weapons Inspections in order to ensure “Nuclear Honesty” long into the future. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Negotiators for the US and Iran met in Switzerland over the weekend for talks on a lasting resolution to the conflict.
Mediators Pakistan and Qatar said they had agreed to a roadmap towards a final deal on ending their war in 60 days.
They also said the two sides had agreed to a mechanism to end fighting between US ally Israel and Iran-aligned Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
And they said they had opened a communications line to help ensure safe passage for commercial ships through the strait, a vital global supply route for oil and liquefied natural gas.
Technical talks will continue for the rest of the week in the Qatari-owned Swiss mountain resort of Buergenstock, the joint statement said.
Iran’s top negotiator is heading to Oman for talks, according to his account on Telegram.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf is set to “discuss enhancing bilateral cooperation and joint efforts to consolidate Iranian arrangements for managing the Strait of Hormuz.”
Tehran did not negotiate on its nuclear programme nor did it accept any new commitments in Sunday’s talks with the US in Switzerland, the the Iranian foreign ministry has said.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told the official IRNA news agency on Monday that Iran’s interaction with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will continue in accordance with current procedures, subject to the approval of Iran’s parliament and the decisions of the Supreme National Security Council.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to travel to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain, according to a State Department spokesperson.
The trip over the next few days will give the Trump administration a chance to sell its preliminary Iran accord directly to Gulf Arab allies.
While in Bahrain, Rubio will also meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, a grouping of six Sunni monarchies that also includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, State Department `spokesperson Tommy Pigott said on Monday.
While GCC leaders have broadly supported efforts to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, many are disconcerted by the specific terms of the memorandum of understanding that US President Donald Trump signed last week.
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