Israel refuses to withdraw from more south Lebanon areas at talks: Source

Israel refused in talks on Thursday to withdraw from more areas of south Lebanon unless the Lebanese army had full control of an initial two “pilot zones,” a Lebanese presidential source told AFP.

The seventh round of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel was held in Rome under US auspices, aimed at ending hostilities between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah that have become a second front in the Middle East war.

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The Lebanese source told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the talks had “not yielded definitive results regarding the pilot zones.”

While the outlook from Beirut was dim, a US State Department spokesperson told AFP that the talks were “productive.”