Israel and Hezbollah agree to renew ceasefire after flareup of violence

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to renew a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon on Friday after 24 hours of intense violence that posed an early challenge to the new agreement between the US and Iran to end their conflict. A meeting that was scheduled to take place on Friday between Washington and Tehran in Switzerland to discuss implementation of the new deal was cancelled when Hezbollah killed four Israeli soldiers and Israel carried out a wave of retaliatory airstrikes in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley that killed at least 47 people. The talks were to have begun in the Swiss village of Obbürgen two days after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that opened a 60-day window to negotiate a permanent understanding over Iran’s nuclear programme while getting oil traffic moving through the strait of Hormuz. The MoU called for an end to hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon.Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned on Friday against any breach of the agreement, threatening a “decisive response … to the enemy”. The flaring violence and diplomatic back-and-forth over the planned talks added to the uncertainty over ​whether a definitive end could be found to a regional war that has killed at least ‌7,000 people, sent energy prices soaring and threatened global economic chaos. …