00:00Joining us now is Associated Press International Correspondent Philip Crowler. He is in Switzerland.
00:05Philip, who is there with you in Switzerland? Has anyone actually arrived?
00:09How is this looking? And do we know what parties are there?
00:12We are hearing reports that the Americans and Iranian delegations are potentially heading there.
00:17But we know there's this whole ecosystem of others who have been advising and been involved in these negotiations.
00:23Who do we expect to show up?
00:26Yeah, that's a very good question. Who is actually here and who is planning to come?
00:30There are a lot of reports out there that Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, is either here or
00:35on his way.
00:36We cannot confirm that independently.
00:38Steve Witkoff, the chief negotiator, would also be a key member of a U.S. delegation.
00:43He is rumored to be on his way. We cannot confirm that right now either.
00:47Here's a part that I can confirm.
00:49The Iranian foreign minister, who would be part of his delegation, in fact, would be heading his delegation to potential
00:55talks with the United States here in Switzerland,
00:57he is, well, in Tehran.
00:59And that's rather a long way away, meaning that, you know, nothing is going to be happening in the next
01:04few hours, I think is pretty safe to say.
01:06That doesn't mean that all parties are not going to be able to somehow get their agendas and schedules sorted
01:12out to all meet here at the same time,
01:14maybe as early as tomorrow Sunday, maybe on Monday.
01:18We're talking about four parties here, by the way, who are expected to be here.
01:22We've already seen that the luxury resort just above Lucerne, where they are supposed to meet, it's already been branded,
01:28by the way.
01:29They're calling it the Lake Lucerne Summit.
01:31It includes the flags of the four participating countries, of course, the United States, of course, Iran, Pakistan, as well
01:38as the moderator,
01:39and Qatar as also a key moderator, at least over the last few weeks.
01:43Let me give you another barometer.
01:45It's not the best in the world, but we've decided to stay.
01:48And any reporters who are going to leave today, well, they've decided to stay here as well,
01:53because it does look like things might be coming together here.
01:57And the main element hereof, why this official signing ceremony that was supposed to happen yesterday, did not,
02:02apart from the fact that the document was already signed,
02:05the main stumbling block was that there was no ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
02:10That appears to now exist. That was the big stumbling block for Iran.
02:14They now seem to be willing, if that ceasefire holds, to travel over here to Switzerland.
02:20In other words, it looks like talks might happen at the end of this week or the beginning of next.
02:25Phil, let me just ask you about the sequencing here, and that's the word we've heard a lot of since
02:29the run-up to the signing of this memorandum.
02:31The memorandum itself, of course, calls for things to happen in prescribed order.
02:35What do we know of the way that these negotiations are likely to unfold and sort of what these four
02:39parties,
02:39as you laid them out, are going to prioritize in those talks once they do get underway?
02:44I'll tell you what, they're going to have to happen very, very quickly indeed.
02:48The comparison with the JCPOA, that's the nuclear deal with Iran that was signed during the Obama administration,
02:54that Donald Trump, as U.S. president, exited, that's the comparison you have to make.
02:58It took a year and a half to negotiate that one. Here, the deadline is 60 days.
03:04That is obviously a very, very tall order. That is very difficult to achieve.
03:09You have to reach, and the memorandum of understanding that they've already signed,
03:13it wants to reach a solution to the Iranian nuclear program that everybody can agree to.
03:20In other words, one where Iran, again, and it's done this in the past, promises not to pursue a nuclear
03:24weapon,
03:24and where that is also essentially physically impossible.
03:28There are huge amounts of details to be discussed.
03:32Usually, when you come to these types of negotiations, there are different working groups.
03:37There is a legal working group. There's a political working group as well.
03:40That is, in theory, what would have to happen here. They still need to be established.
03:44There is so much work still to be done, and very little of that can be decided during, let's say,
03:50a day and a half of talks here in Switzerland, a long, long way still to go.
03:54Philip, we do enjoy talking to you in front of large bodies of water.
03:58And the last time we were communicating, you were standing on the strait.
04:01And so since you've been down there, I do want to ask you about this MOU.
04:05There's a 60-day agreement that there will be free passage, toll-free passage through the strait.
04:09But following that, it seems more and more likely that Iran and possibly Oman will be getting together
04:15with this new Gulf Authority they're establishing to form some sort of, if not a tolling fee.
04:20Now they're talking about charging a special insurance for ships to pass.
04:24Do you think that's a sticking point, or do you think that's something that is likely to happen after the
04:2860 days,
04:29and this is something that Gulf allies and other allies are just going to have to tackle on their own
04:32because it doesn't seem to be something the U.S. wants to hang up the rest of this agreement to
04:36debate about?
04:39Yeah, I think you're right there, that the devil is going to be in the details.
04:42But the most essential part here, certainly for the Trump administration, is the traffic is moving again in the strait
04:48of Hormuz.
04:49That is something that the U.S. president wanted to make clear to people with this agreement that has now
04:54been signed,
04:55that he has managed to get Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz,
04:58and that it is not using what it had used during this war, which was essentially a tollbooth system
05:04where tankers and the companies controlling them would have to pay a hefty amount of money
05:08to even be allowed through the strait of Hormuz.
05:11That is not supposed to happen over these next 60 days.
05:14But as you mentioned, Iran might want these ships all to be insured, not necessarily pay for that immediately,
05:21maybe after those 60 days.
05:22It looks like we've got a little bit of a grey area here.
05:26But the most important thing is that the promise in this memorandum of understanding
05:29is that the strait of Hormuz would be reopened.
05:32It is.
05:33We can confirm the tankers are now moving again from the Persian Gulf through the strait of Hormuz
05:38into the wider world and the worldwide oil markets.
05:41Of course, there's still going to be so much left to be done.
05:45The installations in the Gulf countries that were damaged by drone and missile attacks,
05:50they still need to be repaired.
05:52Oil production has to be ramped up significantly.
05:55Natural gas production in Qatar, for example, their facilities were damaged as well.
05:59We're really not at the status quo element here yet.
06:03We're not quite where we were before this war broke out.
06:07But the most important part of this is that some parts of this agreement are already being implemented
06:12and the reopening of the strait of Hormuz is not necessarily the most important one.
06:16The most important one, I think it's safe to say, is that there is an extended ceasefire
06:20between the United States and Iran.
06:21But coming a close second is certainly that shipping is up and running again.
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