BEIRUT: The United States will oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces from \u201cpilot zones\u201d in the south, with the first to get underway within days, Lebanese and US officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n
A US official said that new talks between Israel and Lebanon would go ahead next week, after a diplomatic source earlier told AFP that Lebanon had demanded an Israeli pullout from the zones before taking part.<\/p>\n
Under a framework agreement reached on June 26, Israel will gradually withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon where it has sent troops as part of its military campaign against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia movement that has long battled Israel.<\/p>\n
As part of the agreement, the long-disempowered Lebanese military will take full control of two small areas dubbed pilot zones.<\/p>\n
The US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, told President Joseph Aoun that \u201can American military delegation will arrive in Beirut in the coming days to\u2026 determine the mechanism for implementation on the ground,\u201d according to the Lebanese presidency.<\/p>\n
In Washington, a US official said that \u201cwe have moved to the implementation stage of the framework.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first pilot zone will launch in a matter of days, and further pilot zones are being mapped out and planned,\u201d the official said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
US Central Command will coordinate on the zones with both countries, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will soon begin outreach to international partners to help the Lebanese government effectively restore sovereignty in these zones and across their country more broadly,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n
The agreement says that Lebanon will exert full responsibility for the zones only upon \u201cconfirmation of successful disarmament of non-state armed groups,\u201d a reference to Hezbollah, for years effectively outside the control of the Lebanese government.<\/p>\n
The agreement \u2014 rejected by Hezbollah \u2014 does not set a timetable for Israel\u2019s withdrawal, and Israeli officials have also vowed that their forces will remain in a \u201csecurity zone\u201d 10 kilometers (six miles) deep as long as Hezbollah remains armed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is essential to avoid any vacuum when Israeli forces withdraw from the designated area,\u201d Issa added, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency.<\/p>\n
Aoun, for his part, once again called on the United States to \u201cexert pressure on Israel to halt military operations and comply with the provisions of the framework.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aoun is expected to visit Washington later this month at the invitation of his American counterpart Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The latest Israel-Lebanon talks will take place in Rome next Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n
The US official said the talks would take place at the level of technical teams and be closed to the press. Italy had earlier announced that the talks would take place between ambassadors, much like previous rounds in Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIRUT: The United States will oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces from \u201cpilot zones\u201d in the south, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-534204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}