Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli airstrike on the 19th. [Reuters=Yonhap News]

Peace talks are facing immediate setbacks as Israel continues its airstrikes on Lebanon, even after the United States and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a ceasefire.

However, there is a possibility that working-level negotiations could begin soon, as Iran announced on the 19th (local time) that plans are being made to hold negotiations within the next few days.

Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, stated on the same day, "The Swiss meeting scheduled for today (the 19th) has been postponed to another day. Plans to hold negotiations within the next few days are currently being formulated." The White House had previously announced that Vice President JD Vance's visit to Switzerland for follow-up nuclear negotiations with Iran had been postponed.

The Swiss canton of Nidwalden, which oversees Bürgenstock in Switzerland where the first working-level negotiations were scheduled to take place, announced that representatives from the United States and Iran were expected to negotiate the implementation of the MOU between the 19th and 21st over the weekend.

Nidwalden canton announced this via its homepage on the afternoon of the same day, extending the traffic restrictions in the surrounding areas, originally set to end on the 20th, until the morning of the 22nd.

Swiss media reported that despite the Swiss Foreign Ministry's announcement early in the day regarding the postponement of negotiations between the US and Iran, aircraft belonging to the mediating Qatari government and US military transport planes landed at Zurich Airport and a military base near Bürgenstock, respectively, on the morning of the same day.

However, it remains uncertain whether the chief negotiators from both sides, such as US Vice President Vance and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, will directly attend the follow-up negotiations, even if they are held.

 US Vice President JD Vance (left) and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf [Reuters · Xinhua=Yonhap News file photo]

There were also reports that Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire on the afternoon of the same day, with mediation from the United States and Qatar.

A senior US official told the Israeli daily Times of Israel, "Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon. The ceasefire officially went into effect at 4 PM local time."

The official explained that this was the result of mediation efforts by the United States and Qatar, holding separate talks with Israel and Iran, respectively.

The background to the setbacks in the follow-up negotiations between the United States and Iran is the armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Israeli military announced that it had conducted airstrikes on over 80 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon from the previous night to the morning of the same day.

Israel claims these airstrikes were in response to Hezbollah's 'ceasefire violations' that resulted in the deaths of four Israeli soldiers.

Portraits of past Iranian Supreme Leaders displayed in Tehran, Iran. [Reuters=Yonhap News file photo]

Article 1 of the ceasefire MOU signed by US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stipulates, "The immediate and permanent cessation of all military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon."

For Iran, which had set a ceasefire in Lebanon as the top priority for peace talks, Israel's continued offensive could be considered a violation of the MOU.

There were also reports that the Iranian delegation postponed their visit to Switzerland, citing Israel's continued attacks on Lebanon as a problem, despite the ceasefire agreement between the two countries.

Spokesperson Baghaei also emphasized on the same day, "According to the MOU, the commencement of negotiations for a final agreement is contingent upon the initiation and continuation of the implementation of Articles 1 (ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon), 4 (lifting of the US maritime blockade), 5 (resumption of Iran's Strait of Hormuz passage), 10 (exemption from sanctions on Iranian crude oil, etc.), and 11 (release of Iran's frozen assets)." This means that Iran can only proceed with the main negotiations in Switzerland if Israel ceases its airstrikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon.