US, Lebanese delegations meet to discuss Israel’s ‘driving zone’ | Israel attacks Lebanon News

Sources say Al Jazeera’s talks are focused on setting up the first of two so-called pilots.

Military representatives from the United States and Lebanon met in Beirut to discuss how to implement the first phase of the joint agreement with the US to achieve Israel’s withdrawal from. southern Lebanon.

Lebanese sources told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the talks focused only on establishing the first of the so-called “airports” outlined in the agreement.

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The meeting follows reports by the Lebanese media and the Financial Times that a US delegation has arrived in Beirut for talks. US Ambassador Michel Issa told President Joseph Aoun on Thursday that the US delegation is coming to “determine the way” to implement the agreement.

Under the June 26 deal, Israel will gradually withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon where it has sent troops to fight Hezbollah.

As part of the agreement, it is said that the long-defunct Lebanese army will take full control of two small areas known as “pilot zones”.

The agreement – rejected by Hezbollah – does not set a deadline for Israel’s withdrawal, and Israeli officials have vowed that their forces will remain in a 10km (five-mile) “security zone” as long as Hezbollah remains armed.

“Hezbollah continues to oppose the talks between Lebanon and Israel, preferring to maintain the agreement between the US and Iran that promotes an end to the war here in Lebanon,” said Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett from Lebanon.

“But despite the breakdown in the cease-fire this week, the group is on fire here in Lebanon,” he said.

Seven people have been injured in the latest Israeli attack

The war, which began in early March after the US and Israel attacked Iran, has displaced more than a million people in Lebanon, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

It said on Saturday that more than 732,000 people had returned home, up from 640,000 a week earlier.

This leaves around 430,000 still refugees, it added.

Israel continues attack, even the end of the war. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several incidents of violence in the south on Saturday.

They also included a residential area in the town of al-Mansouri in Tire district where seven people were injured, NNA said.

The Israeli army also used three tanks and several bulldozers to advance east of the town of Beit Yahoun, according to NNA.

In Houla, also in southern Lebanon, the NNA said Israeli forces set fires, destroying houses and olive trees. Israeli forces also bombed a house in Nabatieh district, it added.

The latest talks between Lebanon and Israel, which do not have formal relations but have met in five talks since the start of the war, will be held in Rome next Wednesday and Thursday.

Lebanon wants to take part in Israel’s departure from the two “driving areas”.

The talks will precede Aoun’s expected visit to Washington later this month at the invitation of his US counterpart, Donald Trump.