Middle East

NPR - Vice President Vance is postponing his trip to Switzerland, where he was set to negotiate terms of a peace agreement with Iran. This week, President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum, which offers benefits to Iran but is only a first step toward a comprehensive deal. Yesterday, the U.S. Central Command announced that U.S. forces lifted their blockade on ships entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas. This action is one of the conditions of a ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran, as both countries enter the next phase of negotiations over the next 60 days. Read the full text of Trump's preliminary U.S.-Iran agreement to end the war here.

 Officials have not explained why the meeting has been delayed, but Israel’s ongoing bombardment of southern Lebanon isn't helping matters, NPR’s Rob Schmitz tells Up First. The first article of the agreement signed by Trump and Iran’s president promises to ensure Lebanon's territorial integrity. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that Israeli forces plan to remain in southern Lebanon. Members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have described this deal as "bad for Israel." For now, Iran’s foreign ministry said that the signing ceremony is off and the White House said that plans for the upcoming technical talks have not yet been finalized. With both the U.S. and Iran threatening to strike each other, this agreement appears to be on very shaky ground, Schmitz says.

Vance is the face of these negotiations, which means that if the U.S. does not achieve its objectives, he might bear a lot of the blame, NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben says. There were early signs of that this week when members of the right pinned their dissatisfaction with the deal on Vance. Kurtzleben adds that the vice president is not a seasoned diplomat, and it is hard to overstate how big a job negotiating this deal will be. Vance's past anti-interventionist positions may lend him some credibility in this role, and he's an aggressive messenger for the administration, Kurtzleben says. Sending the vice president to the negotiations also signals to Iran how significant this deal is to the U.S. Kurtzleben notes it is important to remember that this agreement is not the end of the war, but the start of what might be a challenging process toward that goal.

The Guardian -   Reuters has issued an alert saying Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire starting today at 4pm local time, according to a senior US official. The news agency reported the following:  “Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire,” the official said on background, adding that negotiators for the US and Qataris worked out the deal with help from Iran.