Bürgenstock U.S.-Iran negotiations seem heading to failure.

22 June 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

On Sunday, June 21st, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, met in Bürgenstock at Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, with Iran’s delegation, headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, to finalize the U.S.-Iran 14-point peace deal that was signed on Wednesday, June 17th, by U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The first of this plan’s 14 points is:

1. The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war by signing this MOU declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. The final deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts including in Lebanon and other provisions of this paragraph.

However, Israel has explicitly said that it will not abide by the plan, and that this is especially so with regard to its point number one, regarding Lebanon. On June 19th, the AP noted that “The fighting in Lebanon could unravel the deal”.

The extremely astute commentator Xavier Davis headlined on June 21, “Why the US Iran Peace Deal is Teetering on the Edge in Switzerland”, and he said:

The Lebanon Crisis Can Destroy the Deal

The biggest roadblock to a long-term agreement isn’t even happening in Switzerland. It’s happening in Lebanon. The first round of quadrilateral talks on Sunday lasted only about 80 minutes before breaking for internal consultations. Iranian media leaked that the session didn’t touch the nuclear file at all. Instead, it focused entirely on Clause 13 of the memorandum, which gives priority to the Lebanon file.

Iran is tying the success of the broader peace deal directly to a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Tehran’s negotiators are making it clear that if Israeli attacks continue, the deal is dead. …

If Hezbollah and Israel keep trading fire, Iran will keep threatening to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. One-fifth of the world’s energy supplies pass through that strait. A permanent shutdown means global economic chaos.

Rhetoric Over Real Diplomacy

To make matters worse, the political theater outside the negotiation room is actively undermining the diplomats inside. The Sunday sessions hit a major speed bump when Donald Trump gave a fiery phone interview to Fox News. He warned the Iranian president to watch his words and threatened aggressive action if Iran’s proxies didn’t back down.

Tehran reacted immediately. The Iranian delegation lodged a formal protest, and state media claimed the talks entered a difficult phase because of the insulting messages from the US president. Ghalibaf warned that the US needs to be careful with its statements, noting that Iran’s armed forces are ready to respond.

This is the core problem with the current US approach. You can’t have a vice president preaching about turning over a new leaf in Switzerland while the president threatens the other side on cable news. It creates a chaotic environment where neither side trusts the other’s true intentions.

What Needs to Happen Right Now

If these negotiations are going to survive the 60-day sprint, both sides have to stop using the talks as a platform for domestic propaganda. Here are the immediate steps required to keep the framework from collapsing completely.

• Enforce the Lebanon Ceasefire Immediately: Washington must use its leverage to keep the renewed ceasefire in Lebanon stable. If the fighting flares up again, the Swiss talks will collapse permanently.
• Finalize the Frozen Funds Protocol: A Qatari delegation is currently working on the executive procedures to release Iran’s frozen assets. Finalizing this gives Tehran a concrete financial reason to stay at the table despite the political rhetoric.
• Establish Separate Channels for Rhetoric and Technicalities: The technical experts need to be insulated from the daily news cycle. If every social media post or TV interview causes an 80-minute recess, the 60 days will expire with zero progress. …

If the mediators can’t decouple the technical aspects of oil and nuclear enrichment from the active conflict in Lebanon, everyone will leave Switzerland empty-handed. Watch the Strait of Hormuz and the borders of Lebanon over the next 48 hours. Those areas … will determine if this deal survives.

In other words: unless Trump will abandon Israel if continues its war against Lebanon, Israel, can, if it chooses, terminate this deal that it detests, merely by continuing its bombing of Lebanon. So, the question now is: How likely is it that Trump will disobey Netanyahu?

If he will not disobey Israel, then the 14-point peace plan is dead.

Trump’s comments on Fox News on Sunday indicate that already he is fixed upon blaming Iran, not Israel, for violating the agreement that both he and Pezeshkian had signed on June 17th. If so, then Israel controls America; America does not control Israel.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.