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⚡️ President Joseph Aoun told a delegation this week that holding negotiations with Israel was currently better than any current war, drawing attention to the reduction of Israeli attacks since the last meetings in Rome earlier this month, and stating that the disarmament of Hezbollah would help lead to a lasting peace for the country.
🔹 On Friday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met with US Ambassador Michel Issa and Head of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon General Joseph Clearfield, alongside a US military delegation, with the meeting focussing on the military aspects of the negotiations and the developments on the ground in southern Lebanon.
🔹 Salam called for Israel to halt its destructive operations, expand the pilot areas and establish a clear timetable for withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory.
🔹 US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa said the negotiations in Rome were ongoing and the atmosphere was positive: “An agreement has not yet been reached on which party will carry out the verification, but we have a shortlist and are consulting with them before selecting the country,” he said, referring to the forces set to monitor the framework.
🔹 Asked whether Washington supported Israeli strikes on Ali al-Taher Hill near Nabatieh in south Lebanon, Issa said he was unsure: “You know more than I do,” he quipped, while stating that an assessment of the initial pilot zones would have to be completed before further zones could be identified.
🔹 Negotiations regarding the international body tasked with verifying Hezbollah’s disarmament have stalled, because although Italy, Switzerland, Indonesia and Britain were initially proposed, Hezbollah rejected the UK as a ‘US copy,’ but any verification task would be worthless if the Israeli army remained stationed in occupied areas.
🔹 Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri also spoke with US Ambassador Michel Issa on Friday, emphasising during the meeting in Beirut that the Israeli regime continued its acts of aggression, which had not stopped, and the key to stability involved compelling Israeli to halt its aggression.
🔹 US General Joseph Clearfield, the chief in charge of overseeing the implementation of the framework between Lebanon and Israel, was told by the Lebanese Army Commander on Friday that Israeli attacks were obstructing military missions in pilot areas, despite the institution’s fulfillment of responsibilities during escalation.
🔹 Lebanon are demanding that Washington secure a ceasefire and expand pilot areas before the next round of negotiations, with Clearfield serving as military liaison conveying field observations between the Lebanese and Israeli command centres, as the head of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon (MCG4L).
🔹 The US State Department said that any permanent Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon was incompatible with the agreed framework while reaffirming support for Lebanese sovereignty.
🔹 United States and Arab pressure aims to establish Al-Khiam as a model zone where private properties would be searched via judicial warrants, intelligence information, or in cases of flagrante delicto.
🔹 However, Lebanese diplomatic sources denied on Friday rumours which suggested that Lebanon intended to withdraw or suspend participation in the negotiations with Israel due the attacks, which surfaced in various media outlets throughout Lebanon and Israel this week.
🔹 The Lebanese delegation expressed deep resentment over extensive Israeli bombing of Beaufort Castle tunnels during recent sessions and the lack of response to its proposals, which yielded meagre results compared to Beirut’s expectations for wider, US-backed gradual withdrawals.
🔹 Despite Israeli provocations and intensified shelling, Beirut rejected a walkout, because sources allegedly warned that leaving would only prolong the occupation, benefit Israel, and damage relations with the United States, which serves as the sole mediator and guarantor.
🔹 Consequently, Lebanon remains focused on its contacts with Washington to maintain negotiation momentum, secure gradual military withdrawals from southern areas, and block any attempts at diplomatic obstruction.
🔹 Washington reportedly rejected a permanent IDF presence in Southern Lebanon amid Defence Minister Israel Katz’s ‘Long-Term Security Zone Directives,’ pushing back against statements that announced the IDF would not withdraw from its security zone in southern Lebanon, and instead ordered preparations for a long-term presence.
🔹 A senior State Department official clarified on Thursday that a permanent Israeli footprint is inconsistent with agreed diplomatic understandings and undermined Lebanon’s sovereignty.
🔹 The official emphasised that while the framework included a conditions-based path for a gradual Israeli withdrawal, it must be directly tied to the verified disarmament of Hezbollah and the dismantling of its infrastructure, which the Lebanese Armed Forces have already initiated in the pilot zones.
🔹 Other political sources revealed that Hezbollah’s complete evacuation of the Ali al-Taher Ridge and its underground installations to the Lebanese Army is a prerequisite to implement the Framework Agreement, solidify a ceasefire, and expand pilot zones in Zawtar al-Gharbiya, Froun and Srifa.
🔹 US General Joseph Clearfield discussed with President Aoun and Army Commander General Rudolph Haykal ahead of the Rome-3 negotiations in early September, tut the future hinges on Hezbollah’s response to Aoun’s evacuation demands.
🔹 Israel and the US both rejected Hezbollah’s view that the LAF should confine its deployment to the surrounding hills, citing security concerns and threats to northern settlements, while Lebanon rejected deploying forces around the hills to avoid being caught in the crossfire without a proper ceasefire.
🔹 Hezbollah’s refusal to withdraw would mean Israel will want to maintain military control, raising fears of airstrikes causing catastrophic damage to Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Iqlim al-Tuffah, and Jezzine, which also includes sites between Majdal Zoun and Mansouri, which Tel Aviv claimed was ‘Hezbollah fortified,’ according to information Washington conveyed to Lebanon.
🔹 Washington is reportedly firm on keeping Beirut, its southern suburbs, and the airport in a completely neutral position, vowing to contain any outbreak of war strictly to the southern regions of Lebanon.
🔹 South Lebanese residents and firefighters accused the Israeli military of intentionally starting wildfires in forested and agricultural areas using daily incendiary bombs, white phosphorus shells, and daytime illumination flares, adding that the activity has continued since the June 17 ceasefire.
🔹 Head of the Civil Defence in Nabatieh, Hussein Fakih, reported that between 30% and 40% of frontline land has been affected, noting that operational challenges were severe, because a drone strike near Khiam on Tuesday had forced firefighters to withdraw from tackling one blaze, while rigid deconfliction protocols via a group involving the Lebanese Army and Israeli military restricted firefighting access to only two specific spots.
🔹 Large blazes were documented in Kfarchouba and between Jezzine and the western Bekaa Valley, with Kfarchouba station chief Samir Hardan confirming that drones dropped munitions on Friday and Saturday that repeatedly reignited extinguished woodland fires.
🔹 In Yaroun, Mayor Hafez Ghasham stated that after the Israeli military bulldozed 880 out of 900 homes, occupying troops set fire to the remaining ancient olive and fruit groves on August 1.
🔹 Displaced residents pooled resources to purchase expensive satellite imagery to track the destruction, while inhabitants of nearby Christian towns of Rmeich and Ain Ebel provided photographic proof of the fires spreading to village outskirts.
🔹 Environmental and rights groups have framed the incidents as part of a long-standing tactic against Lebanon’s ecosystem, noting past operations involving medieval trebuchets, drone-attached flammable hoses, and carcinogenic herbicides dropped in February, despite the Israeli military stating that its operations take precautionary measures to mitigate harm to civilians and the environment.
🔹 Tasnim News reported this week that Tehran reportedly prevented a military plan involving a United States-incited Syrian intervention in Lebanon by issuing warnings to Damascus and regional capitals including Ankara, Baghdad, Doha, and Riadh.
🔹 Iran communicated via Turkiye that any Syrian operation against Hezbollah would trigger a regional confrontation within the Syrian territory, warning of a missile response targeting over 100 strategic locations, including the Syrian presidential palace.
🔹 Former Syrian Army Brig. Gen. Adel Issa was questioned by Lebanon’s Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Judge Ahmd Rami Al-Hajj, after Issa had been detained this week in Lebanon on allegations of committing military crimes while serving in the former Syrian Army.
🔹 Following the talks with Issa, Al-Hajj decided to hand him over to the Syrian judiciary under the judicial cooperation agreement between the two countries.
🔹 Issa, who is Alawite, was detained by the Syrian Embassy in Lebanon before being referred to the Lebanese Judiciary, but the agreement requires both countries to extradite and surrender wanted individuals who are citizens of either countries.
