Lebanon talks in Rome wrap up without specific timeline for pledged IDF withdrawals

US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon wrapped up in Rome on Wednesday after a two-day session, without an exact timeline for when Israel will fulfill its pledge to withdraw from two small pilot zones in south Lebanon, though officials described the dialogue as “positive.”

According to Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV channel, Israeli and Lebanese officials discussed during their meeting on Wednesday how to verify that pilot zones under Lebanese army control are free of Hezbollah weapons and fighters.

A third party will verify disarmament, according to the report. No final decision has been reached, though United Nations forces have been brought up as a possibility.

The two sides did not discuss house searches, Lebanese officials told the outlet.

Lebanon is pushing to start the implementation of the pilot project “as soon as possible,” within a week at the very latest, the Lebanese sources said.

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The first pilot zone will include the villages Zatar El-Gharbiyeh, Zatar El-Sharqiya, Ghandouriyeh, Froun, Srifa, and Burj Qalaouiyah, which sit on both the northern and southern banks of the Litani River.

Israel agreed to withdraw from two pilot zones as part of the framework deal inked with Lebanon three weeks ago. Jerusalem described the withdrawals as a very minor concession, given that the pilot zones are located in areas beyond the original buffer zone that the IDF had established in southern Lebanon.

IDF officials have said that while they are ready to implement the withdrawal, they have yet to receive a directive from the political leadership. Lebanese officials previously accused Israel of dragging its feet and threatened not to attend the talks in Rome this week.

However, the US convinced Beirut to back down from the threat, pledging progress on the Israeli withdrawals.

A State Department spokesperson called this round’s two days of discussions “productive and positive.”

“We agreed on the structure and guidelines for the pilot zone process, to be finalized and implemented in the coming days,” the State Department spokesperson said.

The Israeli readout on the talks addressed the issue generally, saying: “⁠The two pilot zones in question were agreed upon. Any further implementation of pilot zones is contingent on the successful implementation of the initial pilot program.

“⁠⁠The pilot zones will serve to test the successful expression of Lebanese sovereignty through the implementation of agreed-upon conditions by the Lebanese armed forces and verification by a third party,” stated the readout attributed to an Israeli official. The official added that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) “were not discussed and will not be part of any verification model.”

He added: “⁠⁠With respect to private property, discussions continue for a solution which will facilitate the removal of contraband weapons while Lebanese law is respected.”

The Israeli official also called this week’s talks “positive,” saying that they “further reinforced that Israel and Lebanon are in agreement on the need to dismantle and disarm Hezbollah and to continue in the process to implement the trilateral framework agreement.”

The State Department spokesperson said that the sides will “now move to expanded technical talks, which will focus on implementing all areas of the trilateral framework with the aim of reaching a comprehensive agreement between Israel and Lebanon.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is slated to meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday. The White House has in the past pushed Aoun to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also slated to be in the US next week.

But Aoun has rebuffed those proposals due to the IDF’s continued presence in Lebanese territory.

Trump is listening to Lebanon’s position in talks with Israel, Aoun told visiting Lebanese Christian lawmakers in Beirut, according to his office on Wednesday.

“The framework formula is the best possible and has begun to yield its effects, and Washington has started to listen to us, with the Lebanese file now on the US president’s table,” Aoun said, according to the readout.

“Our goals are clear, and we will not compromise on matters concerning Lebanon’s rights,” he continued.

الرئيس جوزاف عون امام وفد من "اللقاء الأرثوذكسي":

– صيغة الاطار افضل الممكن وبدأت تعطي مفاعيلها، وواشنطن باتت تصغي الينا، وملف لبنان على طاولة الرئيس الاميركي.

– اهدافنا واضحة ولن نتساهل في ما خص حقوق لبنان.

– حق الاختلاف مشروع وليس الخلاف، والحوار بين اللبنانيين يكون تحت سقف… pic.twitter.com/CNSkylqDkN

— Lebanese Presidency (@LBpresidency) July 15, 2026

Trump, in an interview with Fox News, a clip of which was aired Wednesday, said he wants to see Israel withdraw or “redeploy” forces from Lebanon as well as from a strip it is occupying in southern Syria.

“Southern Syria and from parts of Lebanon, yeah, it would be good to get out, I think, and I think you might see things get a little bit calmer,” Trump said, adding, “We have to focus our energy on the big leagues. The big leagues are Iran.”

Netanyahu reportedly pushed back when Trump requested Israel withdraw from the areas in question during a phone call last week, citing Israel’s security needs.

Trump also once again repeated his proposal for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to send forces into Lebanon to “take care of” Hezbollah, saying that Sharaa “would be more precise” than Israel.

Sharaa has said publicly that he wants Syria to stay out of the regional war and has no desire to intervene militarily in Lebanon.

New strike targets Hezbollah operatives

After the round of talks concluded, Lebanese media reported an Israeli strike between the towns of Kounine and Beit Yahoun in southern Lebanon. Both towns are located inside Israel’s south Lebanon buffer zone.

The IDF confirmed carrying out a strike, saying it killed three armed Hezbollah operatives in the military’s buffer zone.

Soldiers of the 869th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit identified the Hezbollah gunman near the Lebanese town of Beit Yahoun, and a short while later, forces of the 401st Armored Brigade struck and killed the trio “to remove a threat,” the military said.

The military published footage showing the identification of the armed operatives and the subsequent strikes.

במרחב הביטחוני בדרום לבנון: צה"ל חיסל שלושה מחבלי חיזבאללה חמושים בבית יאהון

גדוד האיסוף האוגדתי 869 בפיקוד אוגדה 91 זיהו מוקדם יותר היום שלושה מחבלים חמושים מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב בית יאהון, בתוך המרחב הביטחוני בדרום לבנון.

מיד לאחר הזיהוי, כוחות חטיבה 401 חיסלו את… pic.twitter.com/Q78YmHWi0N

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 15, 2026

US-led diplomacy has emerged since Hezbollah and Israel returned to war on March 2 amid the wider regional conflict. It has moved forward despite strong objections from the Iran-backed terror group.

Iran demanded an end to the war in Lebanon as part of its interim deal with Washington signed last month, but that agreement has been shaken over the last week by renewed US-Iranian hostilities in the Gulf.

Israel’s ​military is holding what it describes as a “security zone” about 10 kilometers (six miles) into Lebanon along the entire length of the Israeli border. Israeli officials say the zone ‌is ⁠necessary to protect northern Israeli communities from attacks launched by Hezbollah.

A meeting in Washington on June 26 produced an agreement that called for an end to the Lebanon conflict, the disarmament of armed groups, as well as the deployment of Lebanese troops to the south and the progressive withdrawal of Israeli forces.

But deadly Israeli strikes have continued and Hezbollah has rejected the agreement as well as efforts to disarm it. Israel, meanwhile, has said its troops would remain in southern Lebanon as long as Hezbollah remains in possession of its weapons.