Iran and US make progress on Hormuz despite Trump's explosive threats

Iran's delegation returned from Switzerland having agreed a mechanism to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and maintain the Lebanon ceasefire, as mediators described 18 hours of talks as producing "significant progress".

US Vice President JD Vance said Sunday had been "a very, very good day" before leaving the Alpine country that hosted the talks.

“First, we wanted to build a mechanism for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open — it is open,” Vance told reporters at Bürgenstock on Monday.

“We laid a very good foundation for a successful final deal, the final deal is the house,” he said.

"We haven’t built the house — but we’ve laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the American people,” Vance concluded.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei confirmed that a safe passage mechanism had been agreed, calling it "important" without elaborating.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, thanking Qatar for its role, said tangible gains had been made and welcomed "the constructive spirit that Washington and Tehran have shown in implementing the memorandum of understanding."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is due in Islamabad on Tuesday for talks with Pakistani officials as part of the ongoing mediation coordination, according to Tehran.

US President Donald Trump complicated the picture by threatening to bomb Iran again, this time over Hezbollah and its refusal to respect a ceasefire with Israel, which has continued its intervention against Tehran's main proxy in the neighbouring country.

“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid proxies in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder," Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.

Trump also reportedly further sparked ire among the Iranian delegation after he told Fox News that Iran "won’t have a country" if it closes Hormuz, adding that the negotiators "won’t even make it back to your f***ing country.”

Ebrahim Azizi, head of Iran's parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, responded on X within hours of the Swiss talks ending.

"You make threats, we take action. The Strait of Hormuz is neither your personal casino nor the backyard of the pirates of the new age; these are Iranian sovereign waters, and the ultimate decision tests with the noble people of Iran and its brave armed forces."