Iranian negotiators stormed out of high-stakes peace talks in Switzerland on Sunday, demanding a formal apology from Donald Trump after the US president threatened to bomb Iran, kidnap their team, and “blow the s*** out of them”. The walkout plunged the fragile negotiations into crisis, though mediators Qatar and Pakistan said technical talks between the two sides would continue for the rest of the week.
The disruption was triggered by a stream of threats Trump posted on social media and made in TV interviews. On Truth Social, he wrote: “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!.” In a Fox News interview, he told Iranian officials: “You close the Strait and you won’t have a country. You won’t even make it back to your f** country … we’ll take over the rest of the country. We may take over the Strait, if we have to. I’ll blow the s*** out of them.”
“Iranian negotiators walked out of peace talks after Trump threatened to bomb them and 'blow the s*** out of them'.”
Iranian state media reported that the talks had entered a “difficult phase” and recessed after the “publication of an insulting message by the US president”. The Iranian delegation met Qatari mediators and then left the negotiating site. In a statement released through state-backed news agency Tasnim, Iran said: “The Iranian delegation has expressed its protest to the American side and is now reviewing an appropriate response to Donald Trump’s recent verbal threats.” The statement added that “any form of threat is considered a serious violation” of the fragile ceasefire agreement.
Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, dismissed the threats altogether: “Don’t they think to themselves that if their threats had any effect, they wouldn’t have reached the desperation they face today? We don’t take the Americans’ threats into account at all.” But the delegation felt compelled to walk out, partly due to domestic political pressure to show they distrust the Trump negotiating team.
The walkout came just days after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding designed to lift the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, leading to 60 days of talks on Iran’s civil nuclear programme. Trump’s threats contrasted sharply with the tone adopted by his vice-president, JD Vance, who said he had been asked by the president to use the talks to “turn over a new leaf” with Iran. Vance met a Pakistani delegation before the Iran talks.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, praised Pakistan and Qatar for their mediation, saying they “delivered major progress”. A joint statement from Qatar and Pakistan said the US and Iran agreed to set up a “communication line” to avoid incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and to establish a “de-confliction cell” with Lebanon’s government to ensure the “adherence of the termination of military operations in Lebanon”. Araghchi said the first real test would be that deconfliction method, created due to fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.
Iran has now demanded not only an apology from Trump but also that Israel fully withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon before it will consider returning to peace talks. It remained unclear which of Trump’s statements had most angered the negotiators, but the Mirror reported they interpreted his remarks as a direct assassination threat.