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Switzerland’s first round of technical talks with the United States on Sunday outlined the scope of the Iranian delegation, what one analyst described as Tehran’s red-line demand for “immediate cash flow” and significant financial concessions from the start.
The team’s arrival in Bergenstock comes just days after a successful memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by President Donald Trump and Iranian President Massoud Pezhekian and follow-up talks were canceled, increasing uncertainty across the region.
“This is the most important negotiation the United States has had in the Middle East in the last few years. Iran knows this and it is playing it very well,” counterterrorism expert Dr. Omar Mohammad told Fox News Digital.
“Tehran arrived as if this was a moment of mobilization,” said Mohammad, director of the program on extremism at George Washington University.
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Tehran sent an unprecedented ‘whole-of-regime’ team to US deal talks, signaling a priority, a counterterrorism expert said. (URS Flueller/Pool via Reuters)
Iranian state media also confirmed that Tehran had sent an entire regime contingent led by chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
His team includes top security, legal and financial figures, including Central Bank of Iran Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, who leads the economic committee; Ali Bagheri Kani, Deputy Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran; Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister handling legal affairs; As well as senior oil and energy officials of the state.
Mohammad said Iran deliberately bypassed a narrow, diplomatic-only team to protect its domestic dominance.
“Iran has not only sent diplomats; it has also sent the foreign ministry, the security state, the central bank, legal affairs and oil,” he said. “This is a whole-of-governance delegation built around implementation, money, leverage and red lines.”
Araghchi, Mohammed said, is the diplomatic face, while Bagheri Kani brings the supreme National Security Council into the room, meaning the security establishment is overseeing the process and “protecting the red lines of the regime.”
The expert said the inclusion of Iran’s top financial and energy officials clearly indicated Tehran’s primary objective: immediate cash flow, “energy leverage” and control over maritime operations.
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Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news conference after meeting with representatives of Pakistan and Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan on April 12, 2026. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff listen during the program. (Jacqueline Martin/Pool/Getty Images)
Mohammed said, “Hemmati’s presence on Sunday was one of the clearest signals. You don’t send central bank governors to a symbolic meeting. You send them when the question is money: frozen assets, sanctions relief, banking channels, usable currency and how quickly Iran can convert promises made on paper into cash it can actually spend.”
“The oil official is another key signal. If oil is in the room, Hormuz is in the room. For an American policymaker, that means maritime security and energy leverage.”
Gharibabadi’s presence points directly to a legal battlefield over verification and language, Mohammed said, perhaps designed to ensure Iran can bypass future enforcement.
The US delegation, which includes Vice President J.D. Vance, is led by US Special Envoy for Peacekeeping Missions Steve Witkoff and former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.
Vance indicated that Washington hoped he could make progress on both the nuclear issue and the growing Lebanon ceasefire crisis while in Switzerland.
On Sunday, he said Trump had called for “a new start” in transforming US relations with Iran and that talks starting in Switzerland would allow both sides to work to resolve the issues.
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In this photo obtained from Iran’s ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks on a street in Tehran May 31, 2019. (Hamid Foroutan/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)
In contrast, according to Iran International, radical lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian read excerpts of what he described as Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s top-secret papers on Iranian state TV.
They alleged the leader opposed nuclear talks, demanded compensation from Washington and insisted on Iran taking control of the Strait of Hormuz before the live program was cut short.
Now, the different composition of the two teams highlights that the two countries are bringing completely different approaches to the table, Mohammed said.
“Iran is not only negotiating concretely, but also negotiating terms under which it can avoid pressure later,” Mohammed warned. “If the money comes first and the concessions come later, Tehran will not consider it a compromise. It will consider it a victory.”
Mohammed suggested, “If Washington gives Iran cash, oil access and legal protections while Iran keeps Hormuz, proxies, missiles and nuclear options alive, then America has not bought peace. It has financed Iran’s next phase.”
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“This delegation is not designed to end Iran’s dominance. It is designed to harvest the benefits of stagnation, preserve the regime’s pressure points, and carry them through to the next round.”
According to Reuters report, talks between Iran and America stopped on Sunday but did not end.
