{"id":273513,"date":"2026-06-22T01:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273513\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T01:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:41:09","slug":"mideast-live-updates-strains-emerge-on-first-day-of-u-s-iran-talks-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273513\/","title":{"rendered":"Mideast Live Updates: Strains Emerge on First Day of U.S.-Iran Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States and Iran began negotiations to permanently end their war on Sunday, kick-starting a fraught process that aims to secure a broader deal within 60 days. The talks face the constant risk of being derailed by the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, and will focus heavily on Iran\u2019s nuclear program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two sides will also need to address other outstanding issues, including sanctions relief for Iran and the shape of a $300 billion reconstruction fund. The passage of ships through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical conduit for global oil and gas supplies, will also loom over the talks. The two sides might also touch on Iran\u2019s ballistic missile program.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where things stand on each topic.<\/p>\n

Lifting sanctions and unfreezing assets<\/p>\n

The U.S.-Iran framework signed last week opened the door to unfreezing billions of dollars in Iranian assets and lifting crippling sanctions on the country, suggesting that the issue would be addressed \u201cimmediately\u201d in negotiations.<\/p>\n

For Iran, with an economy battered by years of sanction-related isolation<\/a> and devastated by three months of war, securing billions of dollars in assets frozen abroad is a priority<\/a> in the negotiations.<\/p>\n

For the United States, its ability to grant financial relief for Iran is strong leverage.<\/p>\n

Abbas Araghchi, Iran\u2019s foreign minister, arriving at the talks in Switzerland.Credit…Pool photo by Fabrice Coffrini<\/p>\n

President Trump has said sanctions would be lifted on Iran \u201cas soon as they behave,\u201d suggesting that relief would not be offered immediately.<\/p>\n

In an interview with New York Times Opinion on Thursday<\/a>, Vice President JD Vance suggested relief could be tied to commitments by Iran to stop supporting regional proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.<\/p>\n

Andreas Krieg, a Mideast security expert at King\u2019s College London, said the point of contention wasn\u2019t so much the commitment to offer financial relief as the question of chronology.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, there is a good understanding on all sides of what is expected,\u201d he said on Sunday. \u201cIt\u2019s about who moves first and how much is being unfrozen at what point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reconstruction fund<\/p>\n

The United States also committed in the preliminary deal to help develop a plan for a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran, but Mr. Trump later said that the U.S. government would not itself be part of the fund \u2014 leaving open the possibility that other countries, like Persian Gulf states, could provide the money.<\/p>\n

The mechanism for implementing this fund will also be part of the latest round of negotiations, according to the terms of the preliminary deal.<\/p>\n

According to one diplomat<\/a>, the fund would be created upon the completion of a comprehensive final deal, and would be a conduit for private investment rather than a war reparations program. That person, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, said companies in the United States, Middle East, Asia, South America and Africa had already committed about half the amount.<\/p>\n

The creation of the fund is politically sensitive for Mr. Trump, who repeatedly criticized President Barack Obama<\/a> for shipping $1.7 billion in cash to Iran as part of a 2015 deal. That money was a refund of sorts for money Iran had paid the United States for military equipment that it never received after the shah was toppled in 1979.<\/p>\n

Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n

The preliminary agreement commits Iran only to not charging fees on passing ships through the Strait of Hormuz for at least 60 days, and defers the question of its navigability to future talks with Oman and other countries in the region.<\/p>\n

After 60 days, Iran\u2019s foreign ministry has indicated, Tehran could charge fees in exchange for unspecified services \u2014 an arrangement the Trump administration had opposed.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump on Saturday added a potential complication to negotiations on the strait, writing on social media<\/a> that there would be no tolls after the 60-day period, \u201cunless they are imposed by and for the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Strait of Hormuz will be a key point in the negotiations.Credit…Reuters<\/p>\n

Although the strait\u2019s ultimate status will be determined in separate talks, the issue will loom heavily over the Switzerland negotiations, as any threat to restrict the economically vital waterway provides Iran with a bargaining chip.<\/p>\n

For example, Mr. Krieg said, Iran could threaten to levy fees on passing ships to extract concessions elsewhere, such as securing access to its frozen assets abroad \u2014 much of which are locked in banks in Gulf states.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot see how Iran will impose fees on countries that are unfreezing assets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ballistic missiles<\/p>\n

Trump administration officials said early in the war<\/a> that curbing Iran\u2019s short-range ballistic missile program \u2014 a major concern of Israel\u2019s \u2014 was a central objective.<\/p>\n

But two months in, U.S. intelligence assessments<\/a> concluded that the goal had not yet been met, with Iran continuing to field about 70 percent of its mobile launchers and maintaining the same share of its prewar missile stockpile.<\/p>\n

Now, Mr. Trump appears to have backed away from the goal explicitly, suggesting he was prepared to accept a future in which Iran maintains ballistic missiles. \u201cI\u2019m saying that \u2060if other countries have \u200bthem, it\u2019s a little bit \u200bunfair for them not to have some,\u201d he told reporters last week.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Mr. Vance said the United States had accomplished its goal by leaving Iran\u2019s ability to launch ballistic missiles \u201csubstantially degraded.\u201d<\/p>\n

If a final agreement is to be reached, Mr. Krieg said he expected it to address Iran\u2019s ballistic weapon program only in loose terms, if at all.<\/p>\n

Unlike limits on nuclear weaponry, caps on conventional missile programs are relatively unusual. And for the Iranians, he said, it\u2019s \u201ckind of the only capability they have that provides them with any deterrence, especially vis-\u00e0-vis Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we do have these sort of caps, it\u2019s usually after a war with a total surrender,\u201d he said. He added that the Iranians largely consider themselves to be in a stronger negotiating position than they were before the war.<\/p>\n

The chance of them accepting any commitment to stringent oversight over their ballistic missile program, or any hard caps, is \u201cunrealistic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States and Iran began negotiations to permanently end their war on Sunday, kick-starting a fraught process…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1448,1452,14670,61145,9,24,63,160,67494,134,136,135,62208,1069,1554],"class_list":["post-273513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-defense-and-military-forces","tag-donald-j","tag-iran","tag-islamic-revolutionary-guards-corps","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-peace-process","tag-persian-gulf","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-trump","tag-united-states-international-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}