Iran war<\/a>\u00a0pact \u200binto a lasting regional deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIsrael and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon on Friday after escalating fighting cast doubt over U.S.-Iran talks critical to reopening the Strait of Hormuz \u200cand stabilising oil supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That followed a 14-point memorandum the two sides signed this week to halt fighting and open a 60-day window to resolve disputes over Iran\u2019s nuclear program, as well as other thorny issues needed to forge a more durable deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Vice President JD Vance canceled plans on Thursday to travel to Switzerland for the talks, however, amid rising tension in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, a militant group backed by Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the ceasefire in place, Witkoff is heading to Switzerland to join Jared Kushner, President \u200bDonald Trump\u2019s son-in-law, who is already there, Axios said. Araqchi plans to travel there on Saturday, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The development may signal that both sides intend to begin technical negotiations aimed at securing a permanent \u200btruce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House did not respond to questions about Witkoff’s travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A senior U.S. official said the ceasefire took effect around 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) in Lebanon following an \u2060exchange of fire, adding that negotiators for the United States and Qatar had worked out the agreement with help from Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two sources from Hezbollah and a senior Israeli official confirmed the ceasefire to Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If Hezbollah does not \u200battack us, then for us it is not a time of war,” the Israeli official said, adding that Israel would keep its forces in southern Lebanon, where it has occupied an area along its northern border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two Lebanese security \u200bsources said Israel had carried out a dozen airstrikes in the first hour of the ceasefire but none were recorded after 5 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reuters) WASHINGTON, June 20 (- U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi were both headed to Switzerland for talks, Axios said on Friday, as a ceasefire in Lebanon appeared to revive efforts to turn an interim\u00a0Iran war\u00a0pact \u200binto a lasting regional deal. Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon on Friday after escalating fighting cast doubt over U.S.-Iran talks critical to reopening the Strait of Hormuz \u200cand stabilising oil supplies. That followed a 14-point memorandum the two sides signed this week to halt fighting and open a 60-day window to resolve disputes over Iran\u2019s nuclear… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58802,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58800\/revisions\/58802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}