Ending all speculation, the much-awaited high-level peace talks between the United States and Iran have finally begun. The mediating country, Qatar, has confirmed that the meeting has started.
According to a report by the news agency AFP, the meeting has been arranged to give a stronger and more lasting shape to the interim agreement signed last Wednesday between US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. At the outset, however, the peace process has faced a number of complications and obstacles.
In a statement, Qatar’s foreign ministry said: ‘The first meeting of the high-level committee, in the presence of the United States, Iran and the two mediating countries, has successfully begun at Lake Lucerne in Switzerland.’ The US delegation at the talks is being led by the country’s Vice President, JD Vance, while the Iranian delegation is led by its parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. Representatives of the mediating countries, Qatar and Pakistan, are also present. Switzerland’s foreign ministry said the delegations of all four countries were currently staying at a luxury resort on Lake Lucerne and taking part in the talks.
Although the talks have begun, Iran has kept in place its decision to close the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran took this tough stance mainly in protest at US President Donald Trump’s failure to force Israel to halt the ongoing military conflict in Lebanon, and is using the closure of the waterway as a major bargaining tool at the negotiating table, according to the report.
The main agenda of the talks initially included three key issues: first, reopening the Strait of Hormuz; second, withdrawing the US ban on Iran’s oil exports; and third, releasing billions of dollars in Iranian assets held or frozen abroad. However, considering the current situation on the ground, the head of the US delegation, Vice President JD Vance, has said they have now also added the Lebanon crisis, or a ceasefire in Lebanon, to the main agenda as an important issue.
Alongside Speaker Qalibaf, Iran’s deputy oil minister and the governor of its central bank are present in person in the Iranian delegation. The presence of these top officials of the Iranian administration proves that Tehran wants, at any cost, to place the greatest emphasis at this meeting on the conditions and legal obligations for lifting the US economic sanctions imposed on it. Whether Washington and Tehran can finally reach any lasting understanding, through the mediation of Qatar and Pakistan in this major effort to bring peace back to the Middle East, now remains to be seen.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report