Lebanon and Israel agree on a shortlist of countries to oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah
A Lebanese official announced that Lebanon and Israel have agreed on a shortlist of countries that could send troops to verify the disarmament of Hezbollah under a U.S.-brokered agreement. The official declined to identify any of the countries on the shortlist or specify their number, stating, “We have reached a shortlist. We have identified the parties unacceptable to each side and outlined potential actors. The Americans will now make the decision, and they may choose more than one country.”
The Lebanese official added that Beirut had rejected a previous proposal allowing private security companies to act as a third party verifying Hezbollah’s disarmament. He said, “All proposed entities are states. We still need to discuss exactly how this would work, the number of troops to be deployed, and how they would operate alongside the Lebanese army.”
The shortlist was developed during meetings between Lebanon and Israel at the U.S. Embassy in Rome this week, marking the latest round of talks on implementing the June 26 agreement, which links the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon to the disarmament of Hezbollah, to be verified by a third party.
The United States is mediating to end the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which erupted last March in tandem with the broader U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran. Two days after the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, Hezbollah fired on Israel in solidarity with Tehran. Israeli forces responded with airstrikes and a ground offensive, seizing a strip of land extending approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) into southern Lebanon. More than one million Lebanese civilians were forced to flee their homes.
It will also be necessary to agree on a framework for the presence of foreign troops in Lebanon, possibly by integrating them into the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose mandate expires at the end of this year. The Lebanese official said this would require a new resolution from the UN Security Council, which the U.S. and Israel appear now prepared to consider, describing it as a breakthrough. Other possibilities include placing the troops under a separate UN agency or through a memorandum of understanding with Lebanon.
However, the talks have not yet yielded an agreement on the next area from which Israeli forces would withdraw, allowing Lebanese forces to take control. Beirut had proposed the towns of Bint Jbeil and Khiam, both of which suffered heavy aerial bombardment and in which Israeli forces demolished entire neighborhoods.
