U.S.-Iran talks postponed as Vance cancels trip and Israel intensifies strikes in southern Lebanon - NBC News

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Israel and militant group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire Friday, after a deadly escalation between the two in Lebanon looked set to derail Washington-Tehran peace talks in Switzerland.

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President Donald Trump told NBC News in a phone call Friday afternoon that he spoke with Israel and asked them to agree to a ceasefire.

“It’s a positive,” he said, adding: “It’s a little icing on the cake.” He declined to specify whether he had talked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly.

An official Hezbollah source tells NBC News that the group will abide by the ceasefire but that the Israelis are still firing and trying to move deeper into Lebanese territory. Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said Israel was “firmly committed to an immediate ceasefire” and has halted offensive operations.

The intensified strikes came days after an interim U.S.-Iran agreement was signed, stipulating that all fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon, must end immediately.

U.S. spy agencies believe Israel will likely continue to launch attacks on Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, potentially jeopardizing a tentative peace deal between the United States and Iran, according to a source with knowledge of the intelligence assessments.

The intelligence reporting comes amid a growing public rift between Netanyahu’s government and the Trump administration over the memorandum of understanding announced this week aimed at ending the war between the U.S. and Iran.

Netanyahu and officials in his government have criticized the deal and said that Israel is not bound by the MOU.

The new intelligence assessment finds that Netanyahu’s calculations are based on his view of the threat posed by Hezbollah and the need to counter that threat, even if it risks derailing the memorandum, the source said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized the need to disarm Hezbollah in a phone call with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday, according to State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott. The two also discussed planned talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington from Tuesday through Thursday next week, Pigott said.

On Friday, Tehran and Washington were set to sit down for their first negotiations on a lasting conclusion to the war started by the U.S. and Israel in late February. But the new Israeli strikes in Lebanon cast doubts on the deal to end the war, and Vice President JD Vance canceled his planned travel to Switzerland for the talks.

Set to take place in the Bürgenstock mountain resort in the Swiss Alps, the negotiations were temporarily postponed following the deadly Israeli attacks, a regional diplomat with knowledge of the situation told NBC News.

“It’s 60 days, they have to make a deal. Otherwise, we, we will do things that won’t make them happy, but I don’t think it’s going to get to that,” Trump told reporters on Friday.

Tehran asked for guarantees that hostilities in Lebanon would end, as outlined in the deal signed with Washington, and mediators were working to resolve the issue, the diplomat said.

The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed early Friday that the planned talks would not take place. The meeting was supposed to have included Qatar and Pakistan.

“Switzerland remains ready to facilitate these talks,” it said in a statement, adding that “relevant preparatory work” in Bürgenstock is continuing.

Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said the Friday meeting in Switzerland was no longer urgent because the agreement has already been signed, adding that another meeting was planned in the coming days.

Trump told NBC News that he expects Vice President Vance to end up going to Switzerland for peace talks at some point.

“I think he’s going to end up going back,” he said. “Steve Witkoff is going separately. I think JD’s going a little bit later.”

Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Vance defended the deal with Iran and stressed that Israel had to “respect this peace process that is fundamentally good for them and good for the entire region.”

He also hit out at Israeli critics of the agreement.