ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A new stage of US-Iran talks towards a final agreement is set to begin on Friday in Switzerland, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday, adding that the first phase of the negotiations ended with declaring an end to the war.

“A new round of Iran-US talks to reach a final agreement will begin on Friday,” Araghchi said during a meeting attended by representatives of diplomatic and international missions.

“Due to difficulties in reaching an understanding, as well as the aggression by the United States and the Zionist regime [Israel] against Iran, we decided to divide the negotiations into two phases.”

The minister noted that following three months of negotiations the two parties were able to finalize the first phase, declaring an end to the war and announcing a peace accord.

The US-Iranian memorandum of understanding (MoU), announced early Monday by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and aimed at permanently ending the conflict, is set be signed in Geneva on Friday.

The understanding follows an April ceasefire, where the two warring sides agreed to halt direct military hostilities for the most part, while exchanging several proposals to permanently end the war.

US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance both electronically signed the recent MoU with Iran, while Iranian parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf signed the accord on behalf of Tehran, Axios reported on Monday, citing a US official.

“The official start of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be on Friday,” Araghchi added.

He also stated that negotiations will continue for 60 days in order to reach a "final agreement," during which the nuclear issue and sanctions relief will be addressed.

The Iranian diplomacy chief stressed that ending the war in Lebanon is an “essential and inseparable part” of the negotiating process, due to the “interconnectedness of the Iranian and Lebanese fronts.”

“Accordingly, just as the ceasefire included Lebanon, the declaration ending the war also definitively encompasses the Lebanese front.”

Lebanon has been a source of contestation in the negotiating process, with Iranian authorities insisting that any agreement to end the conflict must include a halt to Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Israeli authorities firmly standing against the prospect.