Report: US and Israel ask Lebanon to up level of negotiations

The contacts of the past two days, especially those that followed the meetings of Arab and Western officials with Lebanese leaders, highlighted "the intention of Washington and Tel Aviv to beging working on ending the work of the Mechanism committee in its current form,” a media report said.

Lebanese leaders received “a U.S.-Israeli request for raising the level of negotiations” between Lebanon and Israel, with Washington suggesting that Lebanon “agree to the formation of a political-military committee with Israel that would hold its meetings outside the region and exclusively under U.S. sponsorship,” al-Akhbar newspaper said.

The new committee would “manage the file of negotiations in order to end the state of animosity between Lebanon and Israel, which would open the door to amending the (1949) Armistice Agreement, with Israel stressing that ending the state of animosity definitely requires getting rid of all forms of armed resistance action, which would make the demand of disarming the Resistance (Hezbollah) part of the new security agreement,” the daily added.