Lebanon and Israel resumed talks in Rome on Tuesday, putting a US-brokered framework back on the table as Beirut presses for Israeli forces to begin withdrawing from southern Lebanon.
Officials from both countries started two days of meetings at the US embassy in the Italian capital, Lebanese officials said. The talks focus on how to implement a framework agreement meant to end the war in Lebanon.
The Lebanese presidency said President Joseph Aoun directed Beirut’s delegation to demand the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from two specified areas in southern Lebanon before moving to wider discussions.
Italy offered to host the meetings after earlier diplomacy in Washington produced a June 26 agreement. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Rome could help keep negotiations alive, saying the city could become a “capital of peace.”
The June agreement called for an end to Israel’s war in Lebanon, the disarmament of armed groups, the deployment of Lebanese troops in the south and a phased Israeli withdrawal.
But the framework has not stopped the fighting. Israeli attacks have continued, Hezbollah has rejected disarmament, and Israel has said its forces will stay in southern Lebanon while Hezbollah remains armed.
Aoun said before the talks that he hoped the Rome meeting would produce “tangible and practical steps” and allow the Lebanese army to deploy in the south.
One Lebanese official said Beirut would seek a staged pullback, zone by zone, under a pilot plan in which Hezbollah would disarm, Israeli forces would leave and Lebanese troops would move in.
Lebanon’s health ministry says more than 4,000 Lebanese have been killed since March. At least 32 Israeli soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed by Hezbollah, most of them in southern Lebanon.
