Iran and US to embark on two months of peace talks on June 19

Men riding a motorcycle past a roadside billboard displaying portraits of Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir, following a deal between the US and Iran, in Islamabad, on June 16.

TEHRAN - The United States and Iran are to launch talks on a final settlement to their conflict on June 19 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 Feb 28 US-Israeli strikes on Tehran might be coming to an end was dented, however, by fresh Israeli strikes on south Lebanon.

Iran’s central military command, Khatam al-Anbiya, warned that Israel should “await a harsh response” to the strikes, which Lebanon’s state news agency said targeted two vehicles in the town of Mayfadoun and another in nearby Shukeen, near the town of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, killing four.

The Israeli military said it conducted a strike after it “identified a suspicious vehicle” near where its soldiers were operating and that its forces intercepted several rockets and carried out an air strike against a launcher.

The signing ceremony on June 19 will take place at Switzerland’s mountainside Burgenstock resort, perched high above Lake Lucerne, the Swiss foreign ministry said.

According to a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, the framework agreement has already been signed electronically by US President Donald Trump, Vice-President J.D. Vance, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

“Likely on Friday... a new round of negotiations between Iran and the United States to reach a final agreement will begin,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. “In the final agreement, decisions will be made on the nuclear issues and the lifting of sanctions.”

Ghalibaf will attend the signing and the US side will be represented by Vance, who said Trump might also attend.

The developments came after Trump said an Iranian blockade on the crucial Hormuz strait oil and gas route would be fully lifted by June 19, in a major boost to the global economy.

“Ships are starting to move, many loaded up with Oil, out of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said on June 15.

Optimism over the reopening of Hormuz has sent the price of the international benchmark Brent North S