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ZURICH — <\/span>U.S. Vice President JD Vance<\/a> landed Sunday in Switzerland to help formally launch negotiations with Iranian leaders over curbing Tehran\u2019s nuclear program<\/a> and building out the fragile interim deal to end the war<\/a> in Iran.<\/p>\n Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, arrived at Emmen Air Base outside Lucerne at just before 6 a.m. local time, according to his office. <\/p>\n The framework was signed last week, and now top U.S. and Iran negotiators are in a 60-day sprint to reach agreement<\/a> on the technical details that hold massive implications for the world economy and global security.<\/p>\n Yet the first days of that two-month period were complicated by the heavy exchange of fire in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah \u2014 and by the subsequent announcement by Iran\u2019s military<\/a> that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, the vital waterway that transits a fifth of the world\u2019s traded oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n Vance had originally been slated to be on the ground at the picturesque B\u00fcrgenstock resort near Lucerne on Friday, but his departure from the United States was delayed<\/a> after fighting escalated in Lebanon and Iranian officials canceled plans to attend the talks.<\/p>\n U.S. Central Command disputed Iran\u2019s claim that it had once again shuttered the strait and said U.S. forces continued to monitor the situation to ensure traffic continues to flow through the waterway. Vance has said that millions of barrels of oil have moved through the strait<\/a> in recent days.<\/p>\n Vance departed the U.S. just after Iranian state TV said Iran\u2019s negotiators had arrived in Switzerland. Tehran\u2019s negotiators include parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf<\/a> and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, along with central bank and oil officials.<\/p>\n The U.S. vice president joins special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who have already been on the ground to begin sifting through the technical details of the nuclear talks.<\/p>\n The talks between U.S. and Iran will also include Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir<\/a>, as well as Qatari mediators.<\/p>\n While Vance said he planned to be in Switzerland for just \u201ca day or two,\u201d leaving much of the detailed negotiations to be spearheaded by Witkoff and Kushner, his role in the talks has heightened the scrutiny of the vice president<\/a> at a time when he\u2019s actively considering a 2028 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n Trump and Vance have come under searing criticism from parts of their own party<\/a> for the deal, with Republican hard-liners unfavorably likening it to a nuclear agreement signed by the Obama administration that Trump and the GOP have insisted did nothing to actually terminate Iran\u2019s nuclear program. <\/p>\n