Lebanon ceasefire agreed, US official says after US-Iran talks in Switzerland scrapped

GENEVA - Israel and Hezbollah agreed a ceasefire on June 19, a US official said, after deadly exchanges between the two sides in Lebanon put a deal to end the Middle East war under strain less than two days after it was signed.

Talks that were scheduled for June 19 between the US and Iran in Switzerland to take the deal to the next stage were postponed amid the fighting, with no new date announced.

Tehran’s top negotiator warned it would not bend on its red lines and that its finger was still “on the trigger”, even as shipping appeared to pick up in the Strait of Hormuz, which had essentially been closed during the war.

The deal signed this week by President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian aims to end a war that began on Feb 28 with US-Israeli strikes that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The agreement was also meant to halt the fighting in Lebanon, which Iran has always insisted should be covered under any accord, turning Israel’s ongoing campaign there into a source of frustration for Washington.

Israel’s military said on June 19 that it had struck more than 80 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and killed dozens of members of the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon said 21 people were killed on June 19 in Israeli airstrikes in the south, while Israel’s military reported four troops were killed, drawing furious reactions at home.

But a US official told AFP a truce between Israel and Hezbollah, beginning immediately, had been brokered by US and Qatari mediators following talks with Israel and Iran. A Gulf diplomat confirmed the ceasefire.

A previous truce agreed in April, however, did nothing to stop attacks by either side, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said just hours earlier that the Israeli army would stay in Lebanon “as long as necessary” and would make Iran-backed Hezbollah pay a “heavy price” for its attacks.

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir went even further, saying after the soldiers’ deaths that “all of Lebanon must burn”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israel of only being interested in “permanent war”.

Preparations had been made to host Iranian and US delegations led by Tehran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and US Vice-President J.D. Vance at the Swiss resort of Burgenstock, overlooking Lake Lucerne.

The talks were due to kick off a two-month period of negotiations to discuss outstanding issues not covered by the initial deal, notably Iran’s nuclear programme.

Switzerland’s foreign ministry confirmed the discussions had been postponed but said it “remains ready to facilitate these talks”.

Quoting diplomats, the Financial Times said Israel’s strikes on Lebanon had led to the postponement but there was no immediate confirmation.

A diplomatic source from regional player the UAE said there were “two spoilers” to the deal – namely that Israel “didn’t like it” and that there was also hardline opposition within Iran.

Ghalibaf said on on June 19 that talks with the United States would remain bound by Tehran’s “red lines”.

“If the enemy seeks to be excessive, we have proven that our fingers are on the trigger and we have no hesitation in giving a crushing response to the enemy,” he said in remarks published by the official IRNA news agency.

Vance, meanwhile, has expressed a degree of exasperation with the Israeli government rare for a top US official, telling the New York Times “you can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have”.

Iran’s new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father, said on June 18 that he had approved the accord with the US, despite holding a “different view”.

A key aspect of the deal was the immediate re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the key shipping bottleneck whose closure caused global energy prices to rise.

A total of 25 commercial vessels crossed the newly-reopened strait on June 18, the highest number since mid-April, according to data from maritime tracking firm AXSMarine published on June 19.

A fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports passed through the strait in peacetime, according to economists.

American forces on June 18 lifted their parallel naval blockade of Iranian ports, the US military said, noting that American warships “will remain in the general area”.

Iran’s maritime authority said on June 19 that all ships seeking to cross the Strait of Hormuz should submit a transit request “48 hours in advance”, despite its reopening. AFP