Israel Delays Next Lebanon Negotiations After Refusing Withdrawal, KAN Reports

Israel’s refusal to withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory and disputes over the framework agreement have delayed setting a date for the next round of Israel-Lebanon negotiations, Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported, after the seventh round concluded on Thursday in Rome under US sponsorship.

“Israel’s refusal to withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory and ongoing tensions are delaying the scheduling of the next round of negotiations with Lebanon”

TRT World

In the same period, the Israeli army carried out bombing and artillery shelling of positions in southern Lebanon, with Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reporting machine-gun fire toward Wadi al-Salouqi in Nabatieh and artillery shelling of Mansouri overnight.

Al-Aḥnār

Lebanese officials said Israel’s campaign since March 2 has killed 4,335 people, wounded 12,277 others, and displaced over a million people, while KAN said Lebanon is refusing to hold talks in the near future in protest against Israel’s failure to expand withdrawal areas.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told a Cabinet meeting that his country made “positive progress” in the Rome negotiations regarding the border and prisoner exchange files, even as the framework agreement’s gradual withdrawal and pilot phase remained contested.

The framework agreement stipulates a gradual Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory beginning with a pilot phase in certain areas, in exchange for deployment of Lebanon’s army and the disarmament of armed groups, a reference to Hezbollah, according to the reporting.

Euronews reported that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun criticized the saying “What is taken by force cannot be retrieved except by force,” arguing that field experience has proven it incorrect and calling for stability in the south over wars fought “in his name and for non-Lebanese objectives.”

Euronews also said Israel carried out two consecutive air strikes on a car in the Nabatieh region, injuring two people and damaging an ambulance transporting the injured, while Lebanon’s Health Ministry condemned what it termed a “repeated targeting of medical teams.”

Euronews

In parallel, Aoun told a delegation from the Maronite Foundation for Deployment that negotiations are “making progress” and remain “better than the outcomes of devastating war,” and he said the pace of Israeli attacks has slowed after the agreement was signed.

Aoun affirmed that there is a Lebanese consensus on objectives including an Israeli withdrawal, the return of prisoners, and reconstruction, and he said Lebanon “will not accept the persistence of any Israeli presence on its soil.”

Naharent quoted Aoun saying “in any case” the talks are “better than the devastating results of war,” and he emphasized that the scale of Israeli attacks has decreased since the signing of the framework agreement, which he said helped Lebanese citizens return to spend the summer in their homeland.

With the eighth round uncertain, Al Arabiya/Al Hadath reported that Lebanese authorities are delaying a decision on joining a new round of negotiations with Israel while Israeli forces continue to demolish houses and clear dwellings in some southern Lebanese villages.

A Lebanese official told Al Arabiya/Al Hadath that Lebanon’s insistence centers on three demands: a ceasefire, an expansion of experimental zones, and a halt to demolitions, and the official described Israel’s publication of a map showing annexation of lands in southern Lebanon as a “rejected violation.”

The same report said Lebanon and Israel concluded the seventh round of direct talks in Rome on August 6, and it described Israel rejecting Lebanon’s request to designate a new area for pulling its troops out of the south while conditioning verification of the Lebanese army’s control over two areas where troops had previously been deployed.

In parallel, TRT World reported that KAN said Lebanon is refusing to hold talks in the near future in protest against Israel’s failure to expand the areas from which its forces would withdraw in southern Lebanon, while Israel claims the Lebanese army is working in coordination with Hezbollah.

Aoun’s position, as quoted by Naharnet, was that “Ultimately, we will not allow Israel to remain on even an inch of our land,” and he said “We constantly hear slogans” about force, but “the realities on the ground have proven this to be false.”