Iran's delegation arrived in Switzerland ahead of planned talks with the United States, the Swiss Foreign Ministry announced on X late Saturday night, setting up another round of elite negotiations over a conflict that ordinary people will have to live with. The delegation includes Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammed-Bagher Ghalibaf. U.S. Vice President JD Vance later arrived in Switzerland on Sunday for what he has said would likely be a couple of days of peace talks with Iranian officials.
Who Gets to Negotiate
The people making the decisions are the ones with planes, titles, and access. Ghalibaf announced his arrival in a post on X, sharing a photo of himself standing in front of a plane painted with the hashtag "Minab 168" in English and Persian beside the flag of the Iranian regime. Vance and his wife arrived at Emmen Air Base in Switzerland at 5:59 a.m., a vice presidential spokesperson said. U.S. Special Envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have reportedly already arrived in Switzerland for the talks. The Swiss Foreign Ministry’s announcement on X made the arrival public, but the actual terms remain in the hands of state officials and their entourages.
The meeting, which had been originally meant to take place on Friday, follows the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Iran by U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in France last week. Vance and Ghalibaf digitally signed the agreement, with Trump witnessing the signing, according to the U.S. official. The White House published footage of the signing on an X post on Thursday. The choreography is familiar: leaders sign, cameras roll, and the public is told to wait for peace to emerge from above.
What the Talks Cover
An emergency session to address the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has been added to the schedule of the first day of the Switzerland talks, CBS News reported on Saturday night, citing a diplomat attending the talks. That issue will be raised during the first session of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, according to the diplomat. Neither Israeli nor Hezbollah representatives will be attending the talks. The people most directly affected by the conflict are not in the room while the room is being arranged around them.
The talks are taking place amid regional tensions and Israeli actions. In a separate development, Israel said it eliminated two Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives tied to a major funding network. The statement adds another layer to a conflict already being managed through state violence, secretive negotiations, and public messaging from above.
The Machinery of Peace
The arrangement in Switzerland shows how peace is often handled as a state project, not a people’s one. Iranian officials, U.S. officials, and other power brokers have moved into place, while the conflict itself continues to produce consequences far from the conference table. The inclusion of Pakistan's Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan's Chief of Staff, who also departed Islamabad during the night to take part in the negotiations, adds yet more top-down actors to a process presented as diplomacy.
The talks were originally meant to take place on Friday, then shifted into the present schedule. The delay, the arrivals, the digital signatures, and the White House footage all point to a managed process in which institutions stage the appearance of control. Meanwhile, the emergency session on Israel and Hezbollah, and the fact that neither Israeli nor Hezbollah representatives will attend, underline the distance between those who negotiate and those who bear the cost.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry announced the Iranian delegation’s arrival late Saturday night. By Sunday, Vance had arrived at Emmen Air Base, and the machinery of negotiation was fully in motion. The public gets announcements, posts, and footage. The powerful get the table.