BEIRUT: Senior Israeli and Lebanese officials denied on Thursday that there had been any Israeli withdrawal from occupied southern Lebanon, after a US official said Israel had pulled some troops back in a good faith gesture toward Lebanon’s government.
Israel and Lebanon have been discussing a US-backed proposal for Israeli forces to hand some of the territory they occupied in their war with Hezbollah to Lebanon’s military, in a possible step toward restoring Lebanese control in the south.
The “pilot zone” proposal has been part of the latest round of Israeli-Lebanese talks in Washington mediated by the US, which resumed even as they appeared to be eclipsed by Iran’s move to make Lebanon central to its own talks with Washington.
A US State Department official said that “Israel has already taken a concrete step by pulling back from a part of its buffer zone.” The so-called buffer zone is a vast area of southern Lebanon that Israeli forces are occupying north of the Israeli border.
The official described the move as “a significant demonstration of good faith toward Lebanon’s legitimate government.”
