Overview
- President Joseph Aoun left Beirut on Saturday for Washington to hold talks with U.S. officials and a reported White House meeting set for July 21 to press for support on the ceasefire and withdrawal plan.
- U.S. officials described recent negotiations in Rome as productive and said Lebanon and Israel agreed a structure to start implementing a withdrawal from specific areas in the coming days.
- The June 26 framework foresees ‘pilot zones’ in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces would pull back and the Lebanese Army would take control of evacuated areas without armed groups present.
- Hezbollah rejects direct negotiations and refuses to disarm, and there is no public confirmation that an organized Israeli withdrawal has begun or that a full withdrawal timetable has been set, creating a key implementation gap.
- Broader U.S.-Iran tensions and repeated displacement and damage in southern Lebanon make Washington’s guarantees and capacity-building for the Lebanese Army central to whether the ceasefire and zones can hold and civilians can return.