Lebanon intends to demand a binding timetable for an Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon at next week's talks in Rome, setting up a clash with Israel over the central unresolved question in the two countries' framework agreement.
Israel and Lebanon are set to hold direct talks in Rome on July 15 and 16, following a framework agreement signed in Washington on June 26 that calls for Hezbollah's disarmament alongside a phased Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory. According to a confidential annex to that agreement, obtained by The Times of Israel, Israel's withdrawal is explicitly conditions based rather than tied to a calendar, with troop reductions planned and sequenced through a joint Military Coordination Group only once Hezbollah's disarmament has been verified and the Lebanese army has deployed into cleared zones.
Lebanese officials have pushed back against that structure. Lebanon's information minister, Paul Morcos, said the talks have entered a new phase focused specifically on establishing a timetable for the Israeli withdrawal, and a Lebanese diplomatic source told AFP that Beirut is conditioning its participation in the Rome round on Israel first withdrawing from two so called pilot zones in the south and handing them to the Lebanese army. An Israeli official said last month that the IDF needed more time to complete withdrawal from one of those two zones. Israel has said it will maintain forces in a security buffer roughly ten kilometers deep for as long as Hezbollah continues to pose a threat.
Hezbollah itself has rejected the framework agreement entirely, with leader Naim Qassem reiterating the group's opposition and Hezbollah warning that recent clashes with Israeli troops, including one in which an Israeli officer was killed, amounted to ceasefire violations it reserves the right to respond to.
The Rome round comes ahead of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's first planned meeting with President Trump in Washington, expected around July 21, which Lebanese officials say will focus on fulfilling the agreement's requirements, chiefly the Israeli withdrawal and the extension of Lebanese state authority in the south. Lebanon had initially balked at attending the Rome talks over a lack of formal notification about the venue, before reversing course and accepting the invitation this week.
