US Vice President JD Vance on Sunday said that "great progress has been made” over the last few hours in talks with Iran, and expressed hope that "additional progress" would be made in the coming hours as talks between the two sides kicked off in Switzerland.
"We've already made great progress over just the last few hours, and I expect it will make additional progress" in the coming hours, Vance said in his remarks before the opening of talks in Burgenstock.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, together with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, opened the talks aimed at implementing the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding signed on June 17.
Vance said that the objective of talks with Iran is to "transform" the Middle East.
“What we're trying to accomplish here is very simple, through diplomacy, through working together to transform the Middle East,” he said.
“Now we see a future where everybody can work together to promote peace and prosperity for everyone.”
He added that if Iran is willing to give up its ambitions for nuclear weapons for the "long term," then the US is willing to fundamentally transform its relationship with Tehran. “That is certainly our goal.”
"This is a historic meeting, never before outside of Islamabad, and here, so outside the last few months, never before have the Iranian and American leadership met at such a high level," he further said.
He said that the US President Donald Trump “has committed us to see a full regional ceasefire.”
“We found great partners in working with the Qataris, the Pakistanis, our friends in Israel, we're all working towards regional peace.”
To a question about continued Israeli ceasefire violations in Lebanon, he said: “We've seen great progress over the last couple of days in ensuring that the ceasefire holds in Lebanon.”
"These things are always a little bit messy if you go back to how much was happening three months ago, and compare it to three weeks ago," he added.
For his part, Sharif expressed hope that the talks would lead to “productive results.”
“I think here we will have wonderful discussions which will lead to, hopefully, very productive results in times to come,” he said.
