This week’s meetings will test a U.S.-brokered plan for IDF pullbacks and Lebanese army “pilot zones” tied to removing the threat from the Iranian proxy.
Israel and Lebanon are set to open a new round of U.S.-mediated talks in Rome on Wednesday and Thursday as negotiators move from a broad framework deal toward implementing “pilot zones” for an eventual Israeli pullout once the Hezbollah threat is removed.
In a CBS News interview broadcast on Sunday, Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, who is leading the talks for Jerusalem, said the Rome meetings will focus on creating conditions for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to assume control in designated areas so that Israel can begin a phased withdrawal—but only if the Iranian terror proxy is dismantled.
“What the agreement with Lebanon does is completely remove Iran from the paradigm,” Leiter told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan, adding that Jerusalem and Beirut “are on the same page” in seeking to push Hezbollah out for Israel’s security and Lebanon’s sovereignty.
He said Israel “can withdraw the moment that Hezbollah is dismantled,” but that the military will have to stay in the security zone should the terrorist group hold on to its arms, “because we’re not going to go back to a situation where our citizens are going to be threatened by an Iranian proxy firing missiles and building tunnels so they can attack, like Hamas did on Oct. 7,” referring to the 2023 mass murder and kidnappings in southern Israel led by the Gaza-based terrorist organization that sparked a multi-front war with Tehran and its regional terror proxies.