United States-brokered talks<\/a> in Rome over Israel\u2019s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, but the session is unlikely to yield further pullbacks as the two sides remain split over disarming Hezbollah, according to a senior Lebanese official.<\/p>\nThe negotiations on Wednesday are the second day of the second round of talks in Rome and the seventh overall, following five sessions in Washington. They aim to shore up a fragile ceasefire and build on a framework agreement signed in June.<\/p>\n
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Tuesday\u2019s session was split into political and military tracks, a senior Lebanese official told the Anadolu news agency. Lebanon set out its position on the border during the political meeting, while the military track addressed the mechanism for verifying implementation of security arrangements, including the Israeli withdrawal and Hezbollah\u2019s weapons. Lebanon has received no answer from the Israeli political side on its commitment to the ceasefire, the official said.<\/p>\n
For the first time, the official told Anadolu, the Israeli delegation stepped back from demanding that Hezbollah\u2019s disarmament be discussed before the border file.<\/p>\n
A key focus is Ali Taher Hill, strategic high ground near Nabatieh that Israel says conceals a Hezbollah command centre and underground weapons facilities. Israel wants the Lebanese army to secure the site and dismantle the group\u2019s infrastructure as one of several \u201cpilot zones\u201d, but Beirut says there are no Israeli units there to replace.<\/p>\n
The talks also addressed naming a third party to verify the Israeli withdrawal and oversee the Lebanese army\u2019s takeover of the areas in question, the official said. Some reports point to Italy.<\/p>\n
Lebanon asked that the next pilot zone be in Khiam or Bint Jbeil, the official said. In such zones, the Lebanese army assumes full security responsibility, including barring Hezbollah\u2019s return, in exchange for a limited Israeli pullback.<\/p>\n
An earlier Rome round produced a deal for Israel to withdraw from the outskirts of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh, after which the Lebanese army deployed and residents returned following survey and clearance work.<\/p>\n
Lebanon also wants Israel to halt large-scale demolitions and bombings in the south, the most recent of which last week struck the area around the historic Beaufort Castle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe latest round of talks in Rome is unlikely to lead to further Israeli withdrawals from southern Lebanon,\u201d said Al Jazeera correspondent Zeina Khodr, reporting from Nabatieh. \u201cIsraeli officials have made this clear time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Lebanon had little leverage. \u201cThe balance of power is in Israel\u2019s favour, so Lebanon is relying on the support of the US government,\u201d Khodr said.<\/p>\n
US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the talks focused on strengthening implementation of the framework accord, including the pilot-zone mechanism, verifying Hezbollah\u2019s disarmament and other security threats linked to Iran, and redeploying Israeli forces from the south, to eventually achieve a comprehensive security and peace deal.<\/p>\n
The talks have deepened divisions in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in southern Lebanon have little faith in the agreement,\u201d Khodr said, citing anger at Hezbollah for reopening a front in March, as well as distrust of Israel, which residents accuse of expansionist aims and continued home demolitions. Others welcome any deal that ends recurring wars in an economy \u201cin shambles\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah, not party to the talks, has said it will pull back from south of the Litani River but will not disarm to the north, where Ali Taher lies. Its leader Naim Qassem urged the government to halt \u201cconcessions\u201d, while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam blamed the group for dragging Lebanon into \u201cabsurd\u201d wars. Lebanese authorities say Israeli attacks since March have killed 4,333 people and displaced more than a million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disagreements remain in second day of resumed talks over disarming Hezbollah and Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,85,46,48084,2971,88,47,43],"class_list":["post-575690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-europe","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-attacks-lebanon","tag-italy","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575690","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=575690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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