U.S. and Iranians meet in Switzerland for talks, overshadowed by Strait of Hormuz claims

U.S. Vice President JD Vance (L) speaks next to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (C) and Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani at the start of a quadrilateral meeting between the U.S., Iran, Pakistan and Qatar at the Burgenstock luxury hotel complex overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 21, 2026, as part of high-level talks aimed at advancing a deal to end the Middle East conflict. Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images U.S. Vice President JD Vance held peace talks with Iran at a Swiss resort on Sunday, overshadowed by Tehran saying it had shut the Strait of Hormuz and would not discuss nuclear issues because Washington had failed to halt fighting in Lebanon. The talks were the first to be held under the terms of a memorandum of understanding agreed a week ago, which calls for the strait to be reopened and a halt to all hostilities, including in Lebanon, which U.S. ally Israel invaded in March. But with scant sign of an end to fighting there, Iran said on Saturday it had again shut the strait, whose closure for nearly four months caused the biggest disruption of global energy supplies in history. It also said there could be no start to the next phase of substantive negotiations, including over its nuclear program, until Lebanon's fighting ends and it receives promised economic benefits. Ship tracking data U.S. …