Vance calls first round of Iran talks "very productive"

Vice President JD Vance on Monday called the first round of negotiations with Iranian leaders in Switzerland "very productive" and said they created a "good foundation for a successful final deal" to end the war that began in late February.

"This is laying a foundation for what could be a truly transformed Middle East," he told reporters at Emmen Military Air Base before flying back to the U.S. "But we haven't built the house yet. We're going to have to keep on building and that's what we'll do."

The vice president said the talks resulted in a mechanism to ensure the Strait of Hormuz remains open, the establishment of a working group including Lebanon to address fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and a commitment from Iran to invite U.N. inspectors to its nuclear sites.

"We have the Iranians allowing weapons inspectors, nuclear inspectors into their country for the first time in a long time," he said. "We're obviously going to bolster that inspection regime to make sure they can never have a nuclear weapon."

Vice President Vance said technical discussions between the two sides will continue in the coming days in Burgenstock.

"We left a lot of our team. The Iranians left a lot of their team at the resort there to keep on working at it," he told reporters. "All in all, a very productive 36 hours. We're going to have to keep working it."

The vice president also warned the media to take statements from the Iranian side with a grain of salt.

"What I did find kind of funny is that after that initial meeting, there was this, you know, sort of social media firestorm where everybody said the Iranians are going to leave," he said, "and then we proceeded to talk to them for like the next nine hours. So, I would just encourage the media, mistrust a little bit what you see coming out of Iranian social media."

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