Lebanon demanding Israel fulfill pledge for pullout pilot or it will skip Rome talks

Lebanon is demanding that Israel fulfill its pledge to withdraw from two “pilot zones” in the nation’s south and hand them over to the Lebanese military before it agrees to participate in the next round of direct talks, scheduled for next week in Rome, a Lebanese diplomatic source told AFP Wednesday.

The source, requesting anonymity, said “Lebanon is stipulating Israel’s withdrawal from two pilot zones in order to participate in the round of negotiations” that Italy and Israel said would take place in Rome on July 15-16, following the signing of a US-brokered framework deal last month.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel last month that more time was needed for the IDF to withdraw from one of the two pilot zones in southern Lebanon from which it had agreed to pull back under the agreement. The army has not yet been instructed by Israel’s political leadership to withdraw, according to military officials, but the IDF has made preparations for the move.

Israel and Lebanon previously met for five rounds of US-sponsored talks in Washington aimed at ending the war between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah and paving the way for peace.

However, the agreement — rejected by Hezbollah — does not set a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal, and Israeli officials have also vowed that forces will stay in a “security zone” 10-kilometers (six miles) deep as long as Hezbollah remains a threat.

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The Lebanese diplomatic source said the US State Department told the negotiating delegations that “reaching a framework agreement is the end of one phase and the beginning of a new one.”

The next round — aiming for a permanent agreement — required the negotiators to be close to their countries “for consultation.”

The source asserted that Israel was quick to accept Rome as the location for talks as an opportunity to “reduce the pressure” it had faced from Washington during negotiations on the framework agreement.

Lebanon’s negotiators, meanwhile, received guarantees that Washington would maintain “the same level of engagement in the negotiations and the same policy in managing the talks” in Rome.

The framework agreement followed an earlier deal between Tehran and Washington aimed at ending the wider regional war, which also established a ceasefire in Lebanon. Jerusalem and Beirut were both angered by that deal and sought to sideline it.

The diplomatic source said Beirut wants to “affirm its right and ability to negotiate on its own behalf.”

The talks precede Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s expected visit to Washington later this month, at the invitation of his US counterpart Donald Trump.

Aoun said on Wednesday that the visit reflects “the United States’ support for the path to finding a lasting solution to the series of Israeli wars and attacks on our country.”

The Lebanese presidency has not announced the date of the visit, but media in the country suggested it will take place on July 21.

IDF captures Radwan Force member, kills another

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed two people on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported.

“Two young men were martyred after being targeted by an enemy drone… while they were walking in the vicinity of Ghandour Hospital in Nabatieh al-Fawqa,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said, two days after a strike on the same town killed four civilians, including a school principal.

The IDF did not immediately comment on the reported strike.

Earlier in the day, the IDF announced that troops captured a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and killed another during operations in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil the previous day.

The IDF said troops of the 679th “Yiftah” Armored Brigade had scanned an area of Bint Jbeil where last week a Hezbollah operative opened fire and seriously wounded a reservist with the unit.

One Radwan operative was captured by the troops, while a second was shot dead, according to the military.