DUBAI/WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump’s personal envoy and Iran’s foreign minister were headed to Switzerland for talks, Axios said, although deadly strikes by Israel in Lebanon on Saturday could test a new ceasefire key to ending the Iran war.

The talks, led by Steve Witkoff and Abbas Araqchi, mark an effort to turn this week’s interim 14-point pact into a lasting regional deal to end the war that the United States and Israel launched on February 28.

But just hours after a ceasefire took effect in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, Israeli air strikes and drone attacks killed at least five people in the south on Saturday, Lebanese state media said.

A halt to the fighting in Lebanon is a condition for starting 60 days of USIranian talks to resolve disputes over Iran’s nuclear program and other thorny issues needed to forge a more durable deal critical to reopening the Strait of Hormuz and stabilising global oil supplies.

Witkoff-Araqchi talks arranged after Vance pulls out

The Lebanon ceasefire took effect around 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Friday in Lebanon after an exchange of fire, a senior US official said.

Two sources from Hezbollah and a senior Israeli official confirmed the ceasefire.

But Israeli warplanes and drones launched a series of strikes across the Nabatieh area overnight and into Saturday morning, destroying residential buildings, while Israeli artillery shelled Nabatieh and its outskirts before dawn, Lebanese state news agency NNA said.

Israel did not immediately comment on the NNA report.

Witkoff is heading to Switzerland to join Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who is already there, while Araqchi would travel there on Saturday, Axios said.