US vice president JD Vance exited his second day of negotiations with Iran sounding upbeat.
“The final deal is the house,” he told reporters on Monday (22 June). “We set the foundation. We haven’t built the house, but we’ve laid a successful foundation.”
Talks nearly failed on Sunday after US president Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran and kidnap the negotiating team. But cooler minds prevailed, and the two sides now have a 60-day window to turn the interim agreement into a permanent deal.
There was good news on the energy front as well. According to US energy secretary Chris Wright, 67 commercial vessels had passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours, comparable to pre-war traffic levels.
Oil markets have already largely priced in the good news, with oil benchmark prices falling 20 percent (to $79 [€69]) since the US-Iran negotiations were first reported at the end of May.
