Iran’s negotiating team came close to leaving peace talks with the United States in Switzerland after a series of social media posts from President Donald Trump, according to Vice President JD Vance.
The tense moment unfolded as Iranian officials met with Vance, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff. The Iranian side reportedly grew frustrated by the president’s repeated public comments about the negotiations while discussions were still underway.
Iran’s delegation was led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Officials from Qatar and Pakistan were also present, serving as mediators between Washington and Tehran.
“They did threaten to walk out, or at least there was social media threats that they would walk out,” Vance said, before noting that the delegation ultimately stayed at the table. “They didn’t walk out.”
Vance said he told the Iranian negotiators that public criticism would draw a response from Trump. “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,” he said.
Trump posted multiple times about the details of a memorandum of understanding agreed to by the two sides, using his platform to spell out his stance on some of the most disputed elements of the deal as the talks continued.
“There will be no tolls in the Hormuz Strait for 60 days during the Cease Fire Period, and there will be no tolls after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America,” Trump wrote Saturday.
The president published nearly half a dozen Iran-related posts on Truth Social while spending the weekend at Camp David, the secluded presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains. It marked his second visit to the retreat during this term.
Vice President Vance said in a press conference on Monday that the Iranian counterparts he was negotiating with almost stormed out of the talks after Trump repeatedly posted about the ongoing deal on social media
Trump spent the weekend at the presidential retreat Camp David. Above he is shown on his phone in April 2025
Vance speaking with Jared Kushner during the meetings between Qatar, Pakistan, Iran and the US
Trump posted on Sunday that Iran must ‘immediately stop their highly paid proxies in Lebanon from causing trouble,’ referring to Hezbollah, and touted how he destroyed the Islamic Republic’s Air Force, Navy and drone capabilities.
The repeated bashing of Iran frustrated its negotiators so much that they threatened to end the talks with Vance and his team, the VP said at a press conference on Monday morning.
‘So, yes, there was a little bit of threatening, there was a little bit of whining,’ the VP said. ‘But at the end of the day, the talks continued and we made great progress.’
‘When they say things that aren’t true, the President is going to respond to it, I am 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 the President of the United States is actually going to set the record straight. That’s all that happened.’
US and Iranian negotiators were speaking well past 1 am local time as their technical teams discussed the details of an agreement.
He added that they will continue to hash out the details ‘over the weeks and days to come,’ noting that they had created a ‘good foundation for a successful final deal.’
Vance celebrated in the press conference that the Iranians agreed to allow the UN’s nuclear regulatory watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to inspect its nuclear sites.
US Vice President JD Vance (L) speaks next to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif prior to a quadrilateral meeting between the United States, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar at the Burgenstock luxury hotel complex overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 21
US Vice President JD Vance shakes hands with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir
‘The Iranians have agreed to invite IAEA inspectors back into their country,’ Vance said. ‘That is a major milestone for the American people.’
The VP said the agreement amounts to ‘the first step in permanently denuclearizing- permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran.’
He touted progress on four key points, including a mechanism to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, coordinating a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the IAEA inspections and the process to continue negotiations over the next 60 days.
