Lebanon and Israel agree shortlist for Hezbollah disarmament verification force

Rome, Italy. Lebanon and Israel have agreed a shortlist of countries that could send troops to verify the disarmament of Hezbollah under a US-brokered agreement, a Lebanese official said on Friday. The United States is expected to select one or more countries from the list.

Shortlist agreed in Rome talks

The list was drawn up during meetings between Lebanese and Israeli representatives at the US embassy in Rome this week, the latest round of discussions on implementing a June 26 agreement.

The deal links Israel’s progressive withdrawal of troops from Lebanon to Hezbollah’s disarmament, which would be verified by a third party.

“We have reached a short list of countries. We decided which parties were impossible for each and set the potential actors,” the Lebanese official said. “The Americans will now decide, and could pick more than one country.”

The official declined to identify the countries on the shortlist or say how many were included.

France reportedly vetoed

Another Lebanese official and two foreign diplomats previously told Reuters that Israel and the United States had vetoed France.

Israel’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters questions about the shortlist. Asked about the talks, a US State Department spokesperson said they had been “productive on the technical and expert levels” but provided no further details.

Hezbollah rejects disarmament

Hezbollah is not a party to the agreement and has refused to give up its arsenal.

The United States has been seeking to broker an end to fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group, which has continued since March alongside the wider US-Israeli war against Iran.

Two days after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, Hezbollah fired at Israel in solidarity with Tehran. Israeli forces responded with aerial bombardments and a ground assault, seizing a strip of land extending about 10 kilometres into southern Lebanon.

More than one million Lebanese civilians were forced to flee their homes.

Role of verification force

The Lebanese official said Beirut had rejected an earlier proposal for private security companies to serve as third-party verifiers of Hezbollah’s disarmament.

“All of the actors proposed are countries. We still need to discuss exactly how this would work, how many forces would be deployed and how they would work with the Lebanese army,” the official said.