Lebanon, Israel said to agree on list of countries that could verify Hezbollah disarmament

Lebanon and Israel have agreed on a shortlist of countries that could send troops to verify the disarmament of Hezbollah under a US-brokered agreement, a Lebanese official says, with the United States due to pick countries from the list.

The official declined to identify any of the countries on the shortlist or say how many there were. Another Lebanese official and two foreign diplomats have previously told Reuters that Israel and the United States had vetoed France, a former colonial power in Lebanon.

The list was produced during meetings between Lebanon and Israel at the US embassy in Rome this week, the latest round of talks on how to implement a June 26 deal that links Israel’s gradual withdrawal of troops from Lebanon to the disarmament of ​Hezbollah, which would be “verified” by a third party.

“We have reached a short list of countries. We decided which parties were impossible for each and set the potential actors,” the Lebanese official says. “The Americans will now decide, and could pick more than one country.”

Haaretz reported earlier that a shortlist had been drawn up but that the parties had yet to agree on it.

Hezbollah is not a party to the agreement and has refused to give up its arsenal.

There is no immediate response from Israel’s Foreign Ministry to Reuters questions regarding the shortlist. When asked about the shortlist, a State Department spokesperson says the talks were “productive on the technical and expert levels” but does not provide further details.

The Lebanese official says Beirut had rejected an earlier proposal for private security companies to play the role of third-party verifier of Hezbollah’s disarmament.

“All of the actors proposed are countries. We still need to discuss exactly how this would work, how many forces would be deployed and how they would work with the Lebanese army,” the official says.

The next round of talks is set for early September, the official says.