Iran and the United States agreed on a roadmap toward reaching a final deal to end the war within 60 days, meditors Pakistan and Qatar said in a joint statement on Monday following the first day of talks between the sides.

“The High Level Committee has agreed upon a roadmap towards reaching a final deal within 60 days, laying the foundation for the immediate commencement of further technical talks,” the joint statement read.

The statement came after clashing reports from US and Iranian sources during a rocky first day of negotiations. A senior US diplomat said overnight Sunday-Monday that Iran’s delegation was still present at the Swiss venue where the two countries had held talks, after Iranian state media reported that the team from Tehran had left the site in protest of US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats against the Islamic Republic.

The talks, building off of a memorandum of understanding the two sides signed last week, aim to permanently end the Iran war and reach an agreement on sensitive topics such as Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel, which began the war with Iran in partnership with the US, is not a party to the talks, and the MOU’s terms have caused deep concern among Israeli officials. Iran and the US, meanwhile, have clashed over Israel’s continued conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where the MOU calls for a ceasefire.

On Sunday, American and Iranian representatives gathered alongside delegations from mediators Pakistan and Qatar at the luxury Swiss resort of Burgenstock. US Vice President JD Vance, who is leading the American team, said that progress had already been made, but shortly afterward, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble.”

He added, “If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!”

In response, Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned the United States against making threats, vowing that “our armed forces are ready to respond.”

“Don’t they think that if their threats had any effect, they would not have reached today’s state of desperation? We do not take American threats into account,” Ghalibaf said after Trump’s post.

“They would do better to be careful with their statements; our armed forces are ready to respond to them in a different manner,” he added. “No matter what they say, we are the ones who act.”

Later, Iranian state media said the country’s delegation left the venue hosting the talks, citing Trump’s post.

“The delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after meeting with the Qatari delegation as one of the mediating parties, left the building where the negotiations were being held,” state news agency IRNA said.

“At the same time as the talks began in Switzerland, Donald Trump published a message on X in which he repeated his threats and remarks against Iran,” it added.

But the senior US diplomat, who was engaged in........

© The Times of Israel