Iran demands end to Israeli aggression in Lebanon as part of its interim deal with Washington signed last month
\n BEIRUT
\nLebanon and Israel are holding new negotiations under US auspices in Rome on Tuesday, against the backdrop of a regional escalation between Washington and Tehran. The two countries, officially at war for decades, reached a framework agreement on June 26, after five rounds of negotiations in Washington, aimed at ending the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah and paving the way for peace.
\nBut Hezbollah rejects the agreement, which calls for the group\u2019s disarmament and whose implementation is set to begin with Israeli withdrawal from two \u201cpilot zones\u201d in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese presidency announced on Monday that its delegation to Rome had been instructed \u201cto demand the immediate start of Israeli forces\u2019 withdrawal from the two pilot zones before any further discussion.\u201d
\nAccording to a Lebanese diplomatic source familiar with the content of the talks, \u201cthe Lebanese army is ready to gradually take control of the localities from which the Israeli army would withdraw.\u201d \u201cIsrael is willing to withdraw gradually,\u201d analyst Orna Mizrahi of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv told media\u2019s Jerusalem bureau, but on the condition \u201cthat there will be no presence of Hezbollah in the areas that Israel is withdrawing from.\u201d
\nShe added that Israel also seeks to ensure \u201cthat the Lebanese army will have the ability… to keep it as a neutralized zone and a neutralized place that Hezbollah cannot come in again.\u201d A US military delegation began discussions with the Lebanese army in Beirut on Saturday on the process for Israeli withdrawal from one of these \u201cpilot zones.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran demands end to Israeli aggression in Lebanon as part of its interim deal with Washington signed last month BEIRUT Lebanon and Israel are holding new negotiations under US auspices in Rome on Tuesday, against the backdrop of a regional escalation between Washington and Tehran. The two countries, officially at war for decades, reached a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n