US and Israel: No agreement reached on verifying Hezbollah's disarmament

Senior US and Israeli officials denied in comments to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday night that Israel and Lebanon had agreed on foreign troop contributors for a future Lebanon mechanism to oversee Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Israel and Lebanon had agreed on the UK, Italy, Switzerland and Indonesia as countries that could contribute troops to the proposed mechanism. Reuters said the mechanism would deploy foreign forces in Lebanon to verify Hezbollah’s disarmament.

An Israeli source familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post that the Reuters report was incorrect. "There is no agreement on the composition of the body that will oversee and verify the Lebanese military's work in the pilot areas. Negotiations on the matter are continuing," the source said.

A US official also denied that an agreement had been reached, saying there was still no agreement between Lebanon and Israel on which countries could deploy troops in Lebanon after UNIFIL’s operations conclude. The official said the purpose of any such deployment would be to assist in the process of disarming Hezbollah and that discussions were continuing.

A US State Department official said on Wednesday that three days of technical talks in Rome had concluded, with the sides agreeing on details needed to implement pilot areas and on common definitions for “verification” and “clearing” territory. The official said significant details remained unresolved, including who would verify the Lebanese military’s clearing operations.

The State Department official said the military delegations agreed in Rome on operational parameters, shared maps and a road map for opening additional pilot areas later. The US reiterated its opposition to renewing UNIFIL’s mandate, while Israel and Lebanon agreed to work with Washington on a future framework supporting the trilateral mechanism; talks are expected to resume in Rome in early September.