A British diplomat has stepped into the void left by the US vice president’s abrupt departure from nuclear negotiations in Geneva, sources confirmed last night. The diplomat, whose identity remains undisclosed, is understood to have established a secret backchannel with Iranian officials in a last-ditch effort to salvage the deal.
The collapse of talks came when JD Vance, the US vice president, walked out of the session after accusing Iran of ‘bad faith’ over uranium enrichment levels. His exit stunned European allies and left the fragile dialogue in tatters. ‘He didn’t even say goodbye,’ one diplomat told me. ‘The whole thing just fell apart.’
Within hours, a British official from the Foreign Office was dispatched to a hotel near the Swiss border. There, over coffee and cold tea, they met with a senior Iranian negotiator. No translators, no recording devices, just the clink of cups and the weight of decades of mistrust. ‘It was a quiet, direct conversation,’ a source close to the meeting said. ‘The sort that doesn’t appear in any minutes.’
The backchannel is not a formal negotiation but a means to keep the door ajar. Iran has demanded guarantees that the US will not reimpose sanctions, while Washington insists on verifiable limits on enrichment. The UK, with no seat at the original table, now finds itself bridging the gap.
Critics warn that such unofficial diplomacy risks undermining the State Department. But supporters argue that when the world’s superpower walks away, someone must stay in the room. The talks are expected to resume in a low-key format within the week. Until then, the backchannel remains the only thread connecting the two sides.
For the workers in Bolton and the miners in Nottinghamshire, this may seem a distant affair. But a nuclear-armed Iran would send oil prices soaring and push household bills higher. The price of bread, as ever, is tied to the whims of power. And right now, it is a British diplomat holding the line.
