Iran's negotiators remain at table despite Trump's airstrike threat

Iran's negotiating team has remained at the table despite concerns that Donald Trump's hardline remarks toward Tehran could fracture the follow-up talks aimed at formalizing a ceasefire agreement.

AFP cited a diplomatic source familiar with the negotiations as saying Sunday that Iran's delegation "continues to engage in the talks and has not informed the mediating side of any intention to withdraw."

Earlier, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that the follow-up talks between the United States and Iran, held in Switzerland, had recessed after 80 minutes and that the Iranian delegation had left the venue. The report prompted speculation that the negotiations had hit a serious impasse.

The diplomatic source cited by AFP drew a line between a temporary recess and an outright abandonment of the talks, saying Iran had not walked away from the process itself.

The Switzerland talks are the first working-level negotiations since the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to end hostilities. The two sides are discussing limits on Iran's nuclear program, the lifting of sanctions and the handling of frozen Iranian assets.

Trump's increasingly sharp rhetoric has emerged as a complicating factor in the negotiations.

On Sunday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform warning that if Iran failed to rein in Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group backed by Tehran, the United States could launch a powerful airstrike on Iranian territory.

Iran has argued that the MOU it signed with the United States explicitly requires a halt to hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, and has taken issue with Israeli military operations there. A previously scheduled round of working-level talks between the two countries was also postponed over the Lebanon issue.