- Negotiators head to Switzerland for talks between Iran and the United States.
- The United States says the Hormuz crossing remains secure and monitored.
- The ceasefire in Lebanon collapses amid clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.
Iran said Saturday it would close the Strait of Hormuz again over Israeli strikes in Lebanon, shaking up a fragile U.S.-Iran deal just as negotiators headed to Switzerland to try to salvage efforts to end the war in the Middle East.
Follow-up talks had been planned in Switzerland on Friday but were postponed at the last minute after Israel launched deadly attacks in Lebanon following the deaths of four of its soldiers in combat.
Washington announced a new ceasefire there later on Friday, a condition of its deal with Iran, but Israeli troops clashed again with Hezbollah fighters on Saturday, with each side accusing the other of breaking the truce.
Citing a “breach of contract” by the United States and “the continued and relentless violation of the ceasefire by the Zionist regime in southern Lebanon,” Iran's central military command said that “the Strait of Hormuz will be closed to ship traffic.”
The Revolutionary Guard naval force warned ships not to approach the waterway, saying “their safety will be in danger.”
Hormuz, a key conduit for oil and gas shipments, was blocked by Iran for much of the war, sending shockwaves through global energy markets.
Tehran had agreed to reopen it under the preliminary deal signed this week by President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian, and shipping traffic had begun to recover.
US Central Command said after Iran's announcement that safe passage through the international waterway had “remained intact” and that US forces were “present and vigilant.”
Trump later warned that Washington could impose its own tolls on Hormuz if negotiators failed to complete the deal.
There will be no tolls “unless imposed by and for the United States of America,” Trump wrote in Truth Social.
Switzerland pushes
An Iranian delegation left for Switzerland on Saturday afternoon, state media reported, with the official broadcaster saying it included parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the delegation “will demand the implementation of the other party's commitments” under the agreement.
“Otherwise, the entire agreement will be damaged,” he said, according to the official news agency. irna.
US Vice President JD Vance left Washington on an afternoon flight to Switzerland to join the talks.
“I can only be there for a day or two. I think, hopefully, we will make progress on the nuclear issue, we will make progress on the ceasefire issue in Lebanon. Those are the two big things that I think we need to focus on. I'm sure the Iranians will also have issues they would like to discuss,” he told reporters before addressing.
U.S. negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were already there handling “some of the technical elements” and had reported that “things are going well,” Vance said in an interview with fox news earlier Saturday.
Mediator Pakistan – whose interior minister was reportedly in Iran on Saturday to meet officials – said that “technical level talks” were scheduled for Sunday in Burgenstock, Switzerland, and that Pakistani and Qatari mediators would join representatives from the United States and Iran.
The talks are intended to open a two-month negotiating period on issues left unresolved by the initial agreement, particularly Iran's nuclear program.
Switzerland's Foreign Ministry confirmed that unnamed foreign envoys were “continuing their efforts to maintain dialogue” but declined to give details.
The truce in Lebanon breaks
Israel and Hezbollah continued to trade accusations on Saturday as fighting persisted in the south.
The Israeli military said a soldier was killed in combat, the fifth such death since the US-Iran deal was reached.
An Israeli army officer later said that the army had received orders from the country's political leaders to cease fire, adding that the troops were “not carrying out proactive attacks” but operating defensively within a security zone.
Earlier, an Israeli military official said new attacks were underway after Hezbollah “launched more than 50 projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon” overnight.
Hezbollah accused Israel of carrying out “under cover of the ceasefire… an infiltration attempt towards the Ali Taher Hills,” a strategic point overlooking Nabatieh, and said its fighters had responded “with appropriate weapons.”
Lebanese state media reported Israeli airstrikes on around 20 locations, and the country's civil defense agency said 16 people were killed in the Nabatieh area.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said seven more people were killed and 13 wounded in an attack near Sidon, and reported that the total death toll from the fighting had surpassed 4,000.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said his group retained “the full right to confront this enemy when it attacks us.”
Israel's US ambassador, Yechiel Leiter, maintained that it was Hezbollah that broke the truce, saying Israel was “defending itself against terrorist attacks.”
But Hezbollah said Israel bore “full responsibility.”
Hezbollah thrust Lebanon into the broader Middle East conflict in early March when it fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Iran's supreme leader in attacks between the United States and Israel.
An earlier ceasefire that was due to take effect in Lebanon in April was never respected, with each side justifying their attacks by citing alleged violations by the other.
