What was really said in Naqoura talks?

Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives have held this month their first direct talks in decades, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling the move "an initial attempt to establish a basis for an economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon."

Lebanese leaders said Lebanon is "far from" diplomatic normalization or economic relations with Israel. So what was really said during the first talks that included civilians in Naqoura?

Media reports said what Netenyahu described as "economic" is Trump's economic buffer zone plan for south Lebanon and the reconstruction of war-hit regions.

Pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper confirmed in a report Thursday that the Israeli delegation raised the subject of rebuilding the border region in south Lebanon as an economic zone.

Former Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Simon Karam, who was appointed as a civilian to lead Lebanon's delegation, said the priority is to end the occupation and the attacks in order to allow the residents of the border region to return home and rebuild.

Al-Akhbar said Karam told the committee last Wednesday, as it convened at the U.N. peacekeeping force's headquarters in Naqoura, that the return of the residents and the reconstruction are pre-requisites to any discussion about the future of the region.

The daily reported that U.S. envoy Tom Barrack had also proposed to Lebanese officials an economic cooperation that allows Washington to convince Lebanese and Arab investors to invest in south Lebanon along the border with Israel.

Barrack said the U.S., unlike Israel, wants to give the Lebanese state and the private sector an important role there, to restore the southerners' trust in the state as a substitute to Hezbollah.

According to al-Akhbar sources, Barrack considered that it is difficult to disarm Hezbollah by force, as people cannot be persuaded to leave their weapons with nothing in return.