Live updates: Vance heads to Switzerland as fighting in Lebanon threatens to derail talks

US Vice President JD Vance last met for face-to-face talks with Iran’s lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, ten weeks ago, in mid-April.

The meeting came days after a ceasefire between Tehran and Washington was first announced.

Then, delegations from the US and Iran met in Islamabad, Pakistan, for a marathon 21 hours of talks, but eventually left the country without a deal to end the war.

Vance suggested at the time that the primary sticking point was Iran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear program, while Ghalibaf said the US failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency blamed “US overreach and ambitions” for preventing “a common framework and agreement.”

A week later, US President Donald Trump announced plans for US negotiators to travel to Pakistan once again, but canceled the trip days later because of what he called “infighting” among Iran’s fractured leadership.

After this, Trump said that discussions with Iran were taking place “telephonically.”

This week’s meeting between US and Iranian representatives in Switzerland was initially planned to be a ceremony for the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between them.

The meeting was postponed after the document was electronically signed.

Now, the parties are meeting for vital negotiations once again, after Tehran accused the US of “failing” to comply with the agreement in allowing Israel to continue its fighting in Lebanon.

More than 4,000 people have now been killed Israeli attacks on the country since March 2, the Lebanese Health Ministry said yesterday.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Tim Lister, Aida Karimi, Laura Sharman, Alejandra Jaramillo, Kit Maher, Donald Judd, Sana Noor Haq and Charbel Mallo contributed to this reporting.