Rome meeting to address Israeli demands to form joint committees

After weeks of stagnation, a U.S.-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel soon will shift to technical discussions in Rome, an American official said.

The upcoming meeting in Rome on July 14 and 15 will address Israeli demands to form joint committees to oversee the implementation of the agreement. These would include separate committees for political affairs, security, and the management of so-called "good neighborly relations," pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper reported Friday.

The proposed framework would also expand Lebanon's delegation, adding political, diplomatic, financial, legal, and security experts to the existing negotiating team.

Head of the Lebanese delegation, Ambassador Simon Karam, will head to Rome with Lebanon's responses to these Israeli demands, the daily said.

These committees would follow up on the agreed-upon points in the framework deal, specifically ending the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel, gradually transitioning toward a peace declaration, and taking the necessary legal and political steps to achieve it.

President Joseph Aoun, who is due in Washington on July 21 for a meeting with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, discussed Friday with Army chief Rodolphe Haykal the implementation of the framework agreement.

The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic details, said "pilot zones" that both sides had agreed to will launch in the coming days while additional zones are mapped out and planned.

The zones will be where the Israeli military is to turn over control to the Lebanese army in south Lebanon after clearing the areas of any Hezbollah presence. U.S. Central Command is coordinating with Israel and Lebanon on the zones, the official said.

The dates of the meetings and the location of the zones were not yet clear. A State Department spokesperson said they were not previewing those details yet.