US rejects Iran’s Strait of Hormuz closure claim as peace talks open in Switzerland

ZURICH/DUBAI/WASHINGTON: US Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland on Sunday for peace talks with Iran as both nations seek a durable end to their ​war while disagreeing over Iran’s claims that it had closed the vital Strait of Hormuz. Although the US and Iran had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire while negotiations take place, Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday declared the Strait of Hormuz shut, though the US military said commercial vessels had continued operating in the waterway. Those developments could complicate talks in which both sides want to advance an interim deal brokered by Pakistan and signed on Wednesday by Presidents Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian to end the almost four-month war. Pointing to what it called Israeli “crimes” in Lebanon that violated US commitments to a ceasefire, the Revolutionary Guards warned ships would be at risk if they approached the Strait, a vital conduit for global oil and gas supplies. But US Central Command said 55 merchant ships transited the strait on Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil bound for global markets.