President Joseph Aoun on Friday assured a Lebanese Forces delegation led by party leader Samir Geagea that he “will not back down from the decision to negotiate” with Israel, while insisting that he will give explanations to the Lebanese people.

President Joseph Aoun has said that "as long as Hezbollah’s allegiance is to Iran, there will be no progress.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday stressed that "Lebanon cannot remain in limbo,” adding that “Israel must withdraw from the south, and reconstruction must begin, but a functioning state is essential for all of this to happen."

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.

Israeli strikes targeted Friday a pickup truck on the outskirts of Kounine-Kfardjal, wounding two people, and a car in Kfar Rumman.

Later in the day, another strike hit Kfar Rumman again and Israeli artillery shelled the southern town of Deir Seryan.

President Joseph Aoun has said that he wants to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump because he wants the Lebanese issue to “remain on the American agenda.”

“We want to solidify its position there,” Aoun said in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Italy and Israel announced this week that a new round of talks between Lebanon and Israel will take place in Rome in mid-July.

The two sides had previously met for five rounds of U.S.-sponsored talks in Washington aimed at ending the war between Israel and Hezbollah and paving the way for peace.

Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri on Thursday met with a visiting Iranian delegation, which included the Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular and Parliamentary Affairs and Iranians Abroad, Vahid Jalalzadeh, accompanied by Assistant Foreign Minister and Director General for West Asia and North Africa Affairs, Mehdi Shoushtari.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said anew that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has promised to help on the issue of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A U.S. military delegation will arrive in Beirut in the coming days to coordinate the ground implementation of a framework agreement that calls for Hezbollah's disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory.

U.S. Ambassador Michel Issa said Thursday that preparations were underway to implement the Israeli withdrawal from the pilot zones, as he met with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri, ahead of a new round of talks between Lebanon and Israel this month in Rome.