US Vice President JD Vance has departed for Switzerland as senior Iranian negotiators arrive in Zurich ahead of high-stakes technical talks to implement a preliminary accord aimed at ending the Middle East war.
Vance confirmed he will focus directly on securing concrete progress regarding Iran's nuclear programme and the fragile Lebanon ceasefire.
"Those are the two big things that I think we're to be focused on," Vance told reporters before departing from Joint Base Andrews, noting he could only join the discussions "for a day or two."
Negotiations had been planned in Switzerland on Friday, but were postponed at the last minute as Israel carried out a wave of deadly strikes in Lebanon.
Following more clashes, both Israel and Hezbollah have accused the other of violating the new truce that was part of the preliminary accord signed by the US and Iran this week.
Vance described the situation in Lebanon as "actually getting better," adding: "It's going to be something we're just going to have to continuously manage to ensure that... Israel and Lebanon are both safe and secure. The big problem is that you have somebody will shoot and then somebody will respond, and you kind of have a chicken and egg problem where you've just got to stop the shooting for long enough to get the ceasefire to keep hold."
US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were already in Switzerland handling technical elements of the talks.
Meanwhile, Iran's negotiating delegation arrived in Zurich on Saturday evening.
According to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, the talks will take place in Bürgenstock under the framework of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, as confirmed by Pakistan's Foreign Ministry.
