Israel, Lebanon agree on countries to monitor Hezbollah disarmament deal

Lebanon and Israel have reached an agreement on a shortlist of nations that could be tasked with verifying the disarmament of Hezbollah, according to a Lebanese official. This shortlist was compiled during recent meetings held at the U.S. embassy in Rome, marking a significant step in implementing a U.S.-brokered agreement aimed at ending the ongoing conflict.

The June 26 deal connects Israel's progressive withdrawal of troops from Lebanon with the disarmament of Hezbollah, which is to be verified by a third party. While the Lebanese official declined to name the countries on the shortlist, previous reports indicated that France had been vetoed by both Israel and the United States. The U.S. is expected to make the final selection from the agreed-upon list.

Hezbollah, however, is not a participant in this agreement and has explicitly refused to relinquish its arsenal. The Lebanese official noted that both sides identified impossible parties and potential actors, with the Americans now set to decide on the final composition of the monitoring force, potentially including more than one country.

The U.S. has been actively mediating to end the fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which began in March, running parallel to the wider U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. The conflict escalated after Hezbollah fired at Israel in solidarity with Tehran following U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran in late February. Israeli forces responded with aerial bombardments and a ground assault, displacing over a million Lebanese civilians.

Lebanon has rejected a prior proposal involving private security companies as verifiers, insisting that only countries should be involved. Discussions are ongoing regarding the specifics of foreign troop presence, deployment numbers, and their coordination with the Lebanese army.

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