Israel and Hezbollah agreed a ceasefire on Friday, 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 to take place between the US and Iran in Switzerland on Friday to build on the deal and work towards a lasting settlement 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 February 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 Friday that it had struck more than 80 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and killed dozens of members of the Iran-backed group.
