Lebanon and Israel are launching a fresh round of talks in Washington on Tuesday aimed at securing a ceasefire and addressing the presence of Hezbollah, even as a new US-Iran diplomatic track has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the negotiations.

Previous rounds of negotiations since April have yielded little, while a recent US-Iran agreement that extended a ceasefire framework to Lebanon and other fronts has contributed to the sharpest decline in fighting in Lebanon in months.

However, Lebanese officials have maintained that only direct talks with Israel can bring an end to a war triggered when Hezbollah opened fire on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, setting off an Israeli offensive that has left more than 4,000 dead in Lebanon.

Lebanon has made an Israeli withdrawal a central objective of the talks, while senior Israeli officials have said that their forces are likely to remain in southern Lebanon indefinitely.

On the eve of the talks, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Israel's objective was to disarm Hezbollah and eventually reach a genuine peace agreement with Lebanon.

"The only impediment to a deal with Lebanon is Hezbollah," Mencer said, adding that the group should be "disarmed and dismantled."

While progress on Hezbollah may be hard to achieve, other items on the agenda could still see movement. Israel is expected to present a pilot proposal under which it would withdraw from parts of southern Lebanon while Lebanese forces move into those areas under US supervision, Israeli broadcaster N12 reported.

Sanctions waiver

The Lebanon-Israel talks come days after Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding and held negotiations in Switzerland aimed at reaching a permanent agreement within 60 days.

The US on Monday granted Iran a 60-day sanctions waiver, allowing Tehran to export oil and related products and receive direct dollar payments for these exports. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi cited these waivers as economic gains secured through the negotiations.

US President Donald Trump warned that Washington would respond if Tehran failed to uphold its commitments.

"If Iran doesn't live up to their agreement, or if they're not behaving, I will do what I have to do," Trump told reporters.

US Vice President JD Vance gave an upbeat assessment after meeting Iranian officials in Switzerland, saying the two sides had "laid a very good foundation for a successful final deal." He said Tehran had agreed to arrangements concerning nuclear inspections, frozen assets and ceasefire mechanisms.

However, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told the official IRNA news agency that nuclear issues had not yet been discussed and that Iran had made no new commitments. Iran later announced that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency would not be allowed to visit nuclear facilities damaged during the war.

Contradicting Baghaei's claim, Trump later said Iran had "fully and completely" agreed to allow nuclear inspectors to return to the country. Posting on his Truth Social platform, he added that negotiations were "going well" and that "based on this and other major concessions," there would be "no further Naval Blockade."

In a social media post, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said progress in talks with the US on a final agreement depends on "full commitment" to agreed obligations and their precise implementation.

Stressing that the provisions of a recently signed peace memorandum of understanding should be carried out as written, Pezeshkian said, "Statements beyond the agreed text would not help advance negotiations."

Disagreements also emerged over the handling of frozen Iranian assets in foreign banks. Vance said White House envoy Jared Kushner had devised a mechanism that gives the United States and Qatar oversight of the funds and enables their use for the purchase of US agricultural products.

"So, the money that we lift is going to go to our farmers," Trump said.

Iranian Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati, quoted by Tasnim news agency, rejected that characterization and said at least some of the unfrozen assets could be used to purchase other goods not subject to sanctions.

During their talks in Switzerland, the US and Iranian teams also agreed on arrangements intended to end fighting in Lebanon and maintain safe commercial navigation through the critical Strait of Hormuz.