Iran and US set to begin 60-day window for final negotiations on Friday

LAST UPDATE | 16 hrs ago

THE UNITED STATES and Iran are to launch talks on a final settlement to their conflict on Friday in Switzerland, officials said, as news that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen sent world oil prices tumbling.

Negotiations over a final deal are to start immediately after a deal signing ceremony and continue during a 60-day window, leading to decisions on the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme and a plan for the lifting of international economic sanctions.

Optimism that the war triggered by the 28 February US-Israeli strikes on Tehran might be coming to an end was dented, however, by fresh Israeli strikes on south Lebanon.

The Iranian foreign ministry earlier said ending the war in Lebanon is “the most important” issue in peace talks, but Donald Trump has suggested that Syria could be brought in to deal with militant group Hezbollah.

Abbas Araghchi made his comments in a briefing with foreign diplomats broadcast on Iranian television.

“The important point I want to emphasise here is that in our view, there are two parties to this memorandum – one side is America and Israel, and the other side is Iran and Hezbollah.

“This is perhaps the most important issue in the memorandum – the declaration of an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon. Ending the war in Lebanon is an inseparable part of the complete end of the war,” he explained. 

Israel’s scorched earth campaign in south Lebanon has seen it occupy great swathes of the country and demolishing whole villages and towns. 

It has ignored the UN Security Council resolution which established the Blue Line, a demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah has also ignored the agreement and fired rockets across the border.

There are currently around 300 Irish soldiers in the UN peacekeeping force in the area occupied by Israel. 

The peace agreements and ceasefires are between Israel and Lebanon but not with the Hezbollah movement which acts as a de facto local government in the south. There has been widespread ground fighting between Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers and the militant group.

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The IDF has continued to bomb towns during supposed ceasefires and Hezbollah has launched a number of successful attacks on ground forces. It has also carried out extra-judicial killings.  

This morning in a press conference in Evian in France, where the G7 summit is taking place, Donald Trump suggested that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa could deal with Hezbollah militia. His reasoning was that the Israeli campaign was causing too many casualties.

Al-Sharaa is from the Sunni sect and Hezbollah is from the Shia tradition. The Syrian leader took over from Basher al-Asaad after his group marched on Syria – he is a former militant who fought against US forces in Iraq and had a $10m (€8.6m) US bounty on his head until December 2024.

Trump has continued his praise of al-Sharaa and said he is doing “an amazing job”. 

“If Israel can’t do the job [against Hezbollah] without killing everyone else, then he [Sharaa] will do the job. Syria will do the job.”

Al-Sharaa “is very good with Hezbollah, does not like them”, Trump said, adding that the Syrian leader is “no boy scout”.

“[Israel] is fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed.

“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah as, to be honest with you, I think they would do a better job,” said Trump.

Following reports that his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in decline, Trump said “Bibi (Netanyahu) has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.”

“I am not happy with the way Israel had handled themselves with Lebanon and Hezbollah. They should have been able to do the job faster,” Trump said.

With reporting from AFP.

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