Speaking at a NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump expressed confidence that Israel would withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, citing a desire by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do so. “I think they’re going to. I think they want to,” Trump told reporters, adding that a deal between Israel and Lebanon would “work out very well.” The remarks came despite Netanyahu’s visit last week to Lebanese territory occupied by the Israeli military, where he told soldiers that Israel would not leave as long as the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement continued to pose a threat. On 26 June, the two governments reached a US-mediated security agreement under which Israel is to hand over two areas to the Lebanese army as a pilot phase.

In Beirut, a diplomatic source tracking the negotiations told Agence France-Presse that Lebanon is making its participation in the next round of talks, scheduled for 15–16 July in Rome, conditional on an Israeli withdrawal from the two pilot zones stipulated in the framework agreement. President Joseph Aoun, addressing a business delegation, defended the negotiation track as the only way to halt what he described as Israel’s “machine of destruction and extermination” and to eventually end the occupation. He said the decision enjoys the backing of a majority of Lebanese, including the Shia community that has borne the heaviest cost of the southern wars. Aoun is due to meet Trump in Washington on 21 July, a visit the Lebanese presidency said reflects unprecedented American interest and support for a lasting solution.

Israeli officials have not publicly confirmed a timeline for withdrawal. Netanyahu’s remarks during his tour of the occupied area underscored that any pullout remains contingent on the neutralisation of Hezbollah’s military capabilities. The framework agreement, signed in Washington after five rounds of US-brokered talks, envisages the disarmament of Hezbollah and a phased Israeli withdrawal, beginning with the two pilot areas. Viewed from Washington, the deal is a diplomatic breakthrough that could stabilise the Lebanon–Israel front, though Western diplomats caution that implementation hinges on mutual compliance and the ability of the Lebanese army to assert control in the south.

The Rome meeting, announced by Italy and Israel, has yet to receive formal confirmation from Lebanon, which insists on the pilot withdrawal as a confidence-building measure. The handover of the two areas—identified in Lebanese media as the villages of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh and Frun—is seen by European diplomats as a critical test of the framework’s viability. With Aoun’s visit to Washington on the horizon, diplomats in European capitals say the coming weeks will reveal whether the parties can move from declaratory optimism to concrete steps on the ground.