BEIRUT: The United States will oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces from “pilot zones” in the south, with the first to get underway within days, Lebanese and US officials said Thursday.
A US official said that new talks between Israel and Lebanon would go ahead next week, after a diplomatic source earlier told AFP that Lebanon had demanded an Israeli pullout from the zones before taking part.
Under a framework agreement reached on June 26, Israel will gradually withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon where it has sent troops as part of its military campaign against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia movement that has long battled Israel.
As part of the agreement, the long-disempowered Lebanese military will take full control of two small areas dubbed pilot zones.
The US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, told President Joseph Aoun that “an American military delegation will arrive in Beirut in the coming days to... determine the mechanism for implementation on the ground,” according to the Lebanese presidency.
