Europe07 August, 20262 min read
Israel And United States Veto France From Hezbollah Disarmament Verification Shortlist
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Lebanon and Israel agreed a shortlist of countries to verify Hezbollah disarmament. The United States will select from the shortlist to send verification troops.
France Vetoed in Verification
Israel and the United States vetoed France from a shortlist of countries being considered to verify Hezbollah's disarmament under a US-brokered Lebanon deal, with Washington set to select one or more participants.
The shortlist was finalized during meetings at the US embassy in Rome as part of efforts to implement the June 26 agreement linking Israel's phased military withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Hezbollah's disarmament under third-party verification.
A Lebanese official said, "We have reached a short list of countries. We decided which parties were impossible for each and set the potential actors. The Americans will now decide, and could pick more than one country," while a US State Department spokesperson described the Rome discussions as "productive on the technical and expert levels."
The Lebanese official said Beirut rejected an earlier proposal to use private security companies for the monitoring role, insisting that only sovereign states should be considered for the verification mission.
Shortlist, UNIFIL Options
Lebanon and Israel agreed on a shortlist of countries that could verify Hezbollah's disarmament, with Reuters reporting that the United States would choose one or more participants from the list.
A Lebanese official told Reuters that the shortlist was drawn up after ruling out countries deemed unacceptable to either party, and the official declined to identify the countries or say how many were included.
The talks also left open how any verification force would operate, with officials considering placing it under the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, whose mandate expires later this year.
The Jerusalem Post said the Lebanese official described the process as "We have reached a short list of countries. We decided which parties were impossible for each and set the potential actors," while Devdiscourse said the verification would be conducted by foreign troops chosen by the United States, excluding private security firms.
Withdrawal Stalemate and Human Cost
Negotiators did not reach consensus on the next area from which Israeli forces would withdraw so that Lebanese troops could take control, with Lebanon proposing the southern towns of Bint Jbeil and Khiam.
“More than a million Lebanese civilians were forced to flee their homes.”
Reuters reported that the next round of talks is expected in early September, while the Al-Jazirah Net account said Israel conditioned withdrawal on first "verifying" that the Lebanese army had taken control of two areas where it had previously deployed.
The sources also tied the monitoring plan to a wider conflict, with Shafaq News citing Lebanon’s Health Ministry figures that Israeli attacks have killed 4,333 people and wounded 12,250 others as of Aug. 2.
In parallel, the Reuters account described how Israeli forces responded to Hezbollah firing at Israel in solidarity with Tehran after the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, seizing a strip of land extending about 10 km (6 miles) deep into southern Lebanon and forcing more than a million Lebanese civilians to flee their homes.