Iran’s delegation still at talks, US diplomat says, contradicting Iranian report

A senior US diplomat says Iran’s delegation remains at the negotiations venue in Switzerland, contradicting an Iranian state media report claiming that the team from Tehran had left the site in protest of US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats against the Islamic Republic.

The US delegation expects to continue working through the night, the senior US diplomat engaged in the negotiations says, adding that discussions are ongoing.

The US diplomat says discussions have focused on “clarifying some of the confusing messaging from Iran on the Strait and building deconfliction mechanisms to ensure the strait will remain fully open.”

Iranian state media had claimed that Tehran had closed the strait in response to Israeli actions in Lebanon, even though the US has insisted that the channel remains open.

Iranian state media has reported a series of claims that the US has asserted to be false, and motivated by a desire to present a harder line to Iran’s domestic audience.

“We have also worked through deconfliction mechanisms and enforcing the ceasefire in southern Lebanon,” the US diplomat says, regarding Sunday’s talks in Switzerland.

The latter part of the statement further highlights how the US-Iran talks have become the central venue for discussions regarding Lebanon, even though they include neither Israel nor Lebanon or the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.

The US diplomat says negotiators in Switzerland also have had “robust discussions on all elements of the nuclear deal,” and that they plan to use “today’s work as a starting point for ongoing technical talks going forward.”