Remarks: JD Vance Delivers an Update on Negotiations in Lucerne, Switzerland - June 22, 2026

Hello, everybody, and good morning to everybody back in the United States. I guess good afternoon to the folks assembled, So, look, yesterday was a very, very good day. We made a lot of good progress. We did exactly what we wanted to do, which is accomplish four things for the American people. First, we wanted to build a mechanism for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open.

It is open. We've seen, of course, gas prices and oil prices come down, millions and millions of barrels of crude and natural gas flowing through the Strait of Hormuz that weren't flowing before, but we also wanted to make sure that we actually set up the coordination mechanism so that we could de-mine the Straits of Hormuz, so that when there are the conflicts that inevitably come up, we can make sure we work through them rather than that leading to escalation.

And that is exactly what we did yesterday. Number two, we also wanted to build a mechanism -- a similar mechanism for deconfliction for the regional cease fire. As the president of the United States has himself said, sometimes these cease fires just mean you're shooting a little bit less, but we wanted to make sure that we had the proper coordination set up so that if there is shooting, if Hezbollah fires at Israel or if Israel responds, if there are other conflicts that arise in the region, we're actually talking to each other and figuring out how to stop the shooting, how to make the region safer, our allies and everybody else.

We set that up, as well. Number three, we -- and this is probably what we're most excited about as Americans. The Iranians have agreed to invite IAEA inspectors back into their country. That is a major milestone for the American people and the first step in permanently denuclearizing -- or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran.

And that's exactly what we wanted to do. That's exactly what we asked to happen. We made a lot of great progress on other nuclear talks. And that leads me to the final thing that we wanted to accomplish, which is actually set up the process for the technical negotiations that will follow. Our teams work -- working with the Iranians, the Qataris, and the Pakistanis made great progress yesterday.

They will continue to work at the technical level with the teams here in Birkenstock, and then those technical negotiations are going to continue over the weeks and days to come. We wanted to set up a structure for that so that you could have proper political oversight. But obviously, as much as -- this place is very beautiful.

I can't stay here for the next 60 days. I'm about to go back home to the United States, but the technical teams are going to be working with proper oversight to make sure that we're accomplishing the objectives that matter for everybody. So, those are the things that we wanted to accomplish. We came here.

We did exactly that. The way that I think about it is very simple. We laid a very good foundation for a successful final deal. The final deal is the house. We set the foundation. We haven't built the house, but we've laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the American people. I think it's important for all of us to appreciate how much was done, but honestly, there is still a lot to do as we continue to make progress on the nuclear talks, on the economic talks, as we continue to define the Straits and ensure that that flow of traffic continues to pick back up. A lot of progress but still some work to do, and we're very committed to doing exactly that.

So, with that, I'm happy to take a few questions from guys in the audience. I appreciate you guys being here. Let's start with you.

Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Did the president's threats yesterday really throw a wrench in negotiations? There were reports that the Iranians walked out at one point. Can you just clarify and tell us what happened?

No, they didn't throw a wrench in the system. The thing with the Iranians, yes, they did threaten to walk out, or at least there were social media threats that they would walk out. But we were negotiating well past one in the morning yesterday, so they didn't walk out, and their technical team is still here in Birkenstock working with our technical team, actually, as we speak, though, I imagine maybe some of them are taking a break to watch this news conference.

But look, um, what we told the Iranians yesterday is, when you guys engage in what us millennials might call trash talk, you can't expect the president of the United States not to respond and not to correct the record. So, when they say things that aren't true, the president is going to respond to it. I'm going to respond to it. Americans are going to respond to it. When they make threats that aren't rooted in reality, they have to accept that the president of the United States is actually going to set the record straight.

That's all that happened. So, yes, there was a little bit of threatening. There was a little bit of whining. But at the end of the day, the talks continued, and we made great progress.

On nuclear inspectors, when do you expect them to be welcomed into Iran? Is there a time frame that you guys are looking at? And also, in terms of when we could see this entire conflict end, do you think this could end by the midterm elections?

Well, look, right now the conflict is in a cease fire and our -- certainly, our hope is that we get to the final deal and a permanent -- permanent settlement. But right now, I think we've made great progress, and we should all celebrate that. In terms of when the nuclear inspectors are going to start, it's funny.

We were trying to call some of the inspectors last night around two in the morning. As you can expect, not many people were answering their phone at two in the morning. I expect that will happen at the minimum this week, but we think even some of those conversations with the inspectors and with the IAEA could happen as soon as today.

But I haven't checked in with our team since we made that 2 AM phone call to some of those inspectors.

Mr. Vice President -- thank you, Mr. Vice President. Did you, going in, expect the Iranians to make Lebanon as much of a lynchpin as they ended up doing? And how would you describe the progress on Lebanon? I know Mr. Araghchi said it was very good progress, but what's your characterization of it?

Yeah, I would describe it as very good progress, too. I mean, look, we want a regional cease fire, right? We want Hezbollah to stop firing at our friends in Israel. We want Israelis to be able to live in peace. We also want to make sure that, you know, when -- when things happen, they don't spiral into a broader escalation.

And so, we've been, I think, very good at setting up what we're calling a deconfliction mechanism. But what it really is, is to say that, when things happen, the sides are actually talking to one another. Sometimes, you know, you've got a bit of a chicken and egg problem that you've got a junior guy who fires a drone that didn't have approval from the high command.

OK. Of course, Israel has to respond to that. But then sometimes that response -- we could actually have a better and more peaceful situation if Israel responds in the context of a conversation that's ongoing between Hezbollah, Lebanon, Israel, and other partners in the region. There really hasn't been a mechanism to have those discussions until basically around 4 PM yesterday Birkenstock time when we set that up. So, what we're trying to do is to say, first of all, Israel and every other nation in the region has the right of self-defense, but we want to make sure that everybody has that right of self-defense in the background where we're talking about how to de-escalate these conflicts rather than spiraling out of control.

Sometimes what will happen is that -- is that, if the conflict spirals out of control, that's worse for everybody's self-defense and worse for everybody's security. So, we've actually got the process in place to ensure that that doesn't -- that escalation doesn't happen. Now, I will say you already see the fruits of that.

Over the past 24 hours have probably been the most peaceful that we've seen. That situation in Lebanon, the previous 24 hours were pretty good. Obviously, there was some shooting about 72 hours ago, so this is a work in progress. But what we've done is actually set up the operation so that we can ensure it doesn't spiral out of control in the future.

Does the US want Israel to withdraw forces from southern Lebanon?

Well, we want Israel's security to be protected, and we also want Lebanon's sovereignty to be protected. And this is going to be an ongoing conversation. The Israelis have been very clear they do not have territorial intentions on south Lebanon. The reason they feel they have to be there is because they're worried about Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon firing into Israel.

We do believe -- of course, it's going to require a lot of hard work -- that we can get to a place where Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty is protected, Israel's security is protected, and that's going to require some coordination with the Lebanese armed forces and also, it's going to require the Iranians to rein in Hezbollah.

That's all the sort of things that we were talking about yesterday. And again, I think that we got much further compared to where we were just 24 hours ago.

Have you spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu during any of this process at all in the recent days?

Yeah, we were in constant -- we were in constant contact with the Israelis yesterday but also, of course, with the Saudis and the Emiratis and others in the region. We talked to the Lebanese yesterday, as well. So, we're constantly trying to keep our regional friends updated about this. This is not a deal that the United States is imposing on the region.

This is a deal that the region has desperately asked the United States to put in place. Obviously, the headlines have been very focused about what's been going on between the United States and Iran, but this region has been a basket case for a very long time. And what the president has sent us to do, again, lay the foundation, see if we can get to a permanent peace.

If we can't, the president of the United States still has a lot of options to accomplish America's security objectives, but he is certainly committed us to this pathway for now, and we're going to keep on working and seeing what we can accomplish. And then I want to just before we -- before we depart here, I want to say one -- one last thing.

I've seen some misreporting about frozen or unfrozen Iranian assets. One of the other things that we wanted to do, and, you know, wasn't as high of a priority for us for obvious reasons, but we wanted to make sure that we set up a process where if -- if we ever unfreeze Iranian assets, we can ensure that those that -- that money, that Iranian money goes to help the people of Iran and not to fund terrorism.

So, Jared Kushner actually came up with a -- with a very interesting solution with the Qataris where basically, again, if there is any frozen Iranian assets that are unfrozen, then we have approval over that process, the Qataris have approval over that process, and then the money would actually go to buy American soy, American corn, and American wheat for the benefit of the Iranian people.

And as much as I see some of the press misreporting on this -- and of course, you know, buttressed by what the Iranians are saying are -- not all Iranians. I want to be clear. There are a lot of Iranians who are telling the truth about what happened yesterday, but you see some social media reporting that gets this wrong.

But fundamentally, what Jared and the Qataris and the entire team here in Birkenstock accomplished is, to me, a classic Trump deal where, if Iranian assets are ever unfrozen, they're going to go to make American farmers richer and to feed the Iranian people. That's a very, very good and very classic Trump deal that's great for our people, great for the people of Iran, and fundamentally, again, will contribute to this regional security architecture that we've built and that we're going to work very hard to ensure that it endures.

So, from Switzerland, thank you all for being here. I appreciate the questions, and I appreciate the engagement. I am looking forward to going back home, and we'll certainly keep everybody updated on what happens in the days and weeks to come. Thank you all.

Mr. Vice President, just very quickly --