Lebanonupdated 41m ago3 min read
Israel Demands Direct Operations Room With Lebanon Army During U.S.-Mediated Tampa Talks
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Trilateral talks among Lebanon, Israel, and the United States are held at CENTCOM. Lebanon pushes halt to escalation and Israeli withdrawal under Washington-brokered framework.
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Tampa talks, second day
Lebanese and Israeli military delegations continued U.S.-mediated talks in Tampa, Florida, with disagreements centered on the Lebanese army's performance and the security verification mechanism.
Israel requested the establishment of a direct operations room with the Lebanese army to verify the situation in two experimental zones, while the Lebanese delegation expressed reservations about giving Israel a direct role in monitoring the army's movements and its field decisions.
The meetings were held at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and were limited to an expert-level, security-only track under U.S. auspices.
The talks followed a pause of nearly two and a half months since the last round hosted in Rome, with U.S. efforts focused on defining security responsibilities, enhancing the deployment of the Lebanese Army, and establishing a clear mechanism to follow up on the execution of understandings.
The talks had begun yesterday and lasted about six hours, and today marked the second day of the Lebanese-Israeli military talks in Tampa.
Verification dispute and demands
Lebanon insisted on negotiations as a diplomatic solution while the talks remained strictly military and did not constitute another round of direct political negotiations between Israel and Lebanon. A senior Lebanese official said, "The United States, as is well known, imposed this round, and it is nothing more than an attempt to say that the negotiation process is still ongoing, even if it has produced no results." A senior Lebanese official said, "This round comes at a dead time, considering that the elections in Israel are only a week away," and the official added there was no reason to believe Israel would offer anything this week or later regarding a ceasefire or expanding the scope of the pilot zones.
The mechanism for verifying the implementation of the security arrangements was at the top of the agenda, with Israel pressing to establish a joint operations room for direct coordination while Beirut rejected any arrangement that granted Israel authority to intervene in Lebanese army movements or field decisions. Lebanon carried demands including a halt to Israeli raids and demolition of houses, arrangements for the withdrawal of Israeli forces, addressing the prisoners' issue, facilitating residents' return to their villages, and ensuring that farmers could safely harvest the olive crop.
Stakes after UNIFIL
The talks unfolded against continued Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon, with Al-Araby Al-Jadid describing bombardments that included the towns of Wadi al-Hijir, Wadi al-Salouqi, Kufr Tabnit and the outskirts of Zawtara al-Sharqiya, along with explosions in Kufr Tabnit and demolition of houses in al-Qantara near al-Tayyiba.
Lebanon's Ministry of Health recorded at least 4,389 people killed and 12,424 wounded since last March 2 due to Israeli hostilities, while it also said Israel threatened to make its occupation permanent by conditioning withdrawal on total disarmament of Hezbollah.
Israel's Minister of War, Israel Katz, said, "All the villages have been razed. This is the Gaza model, and this is the model we are applying."
President Joseph Aoun reiterated that the main goal of the negotiations was to achieve the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied lands, the release of prisoners, the return of displaced persons, reconstruction, and the deployment of the army across the entire Lebanese territory.
The meetings gained additional significance as they discussed the future of security arrangements after UNIFIL's mission ends, and it said the talks considered a proposal for an international fact-finding committee that could include European and Arab countries.