A United States military delegation began meetings with Lebanese army commanders in Beirut on Saturday to finalise the practical steps for Israel’s withdrawal from a first “pilot zone” in southern Lebanon, according to a Lebanese military official. The move, set to launch within days, represents the initial field implementation of a framework agreement signed in Washington on 26 June. The deal envisages a gradual Israeli pullback from areas occupied during the recent war with Hezbollah, with the Lebanese Armed Forces assuming control of two small pilot zones as a test case. A senior US official in Washington confirmed that US Central Command is mapping out additional zones and will coordinate closely with both parties.

Viewed from Beirut, the pilot zones are intended to restore Lebanese sovereignty but are shadowed by competing interpretations. Sources close to the negotiations, cited by the Lebanese newspaper Ad-Diyar, report that Israel is pushing to define the withdrawal areas expansively, proposing villages that lie north of the Litani River and were not occupied by its forces, a formula Beirut sees as setting a precedent for future claims of military control. Lebanese defence officials, according to the same sources, are alert to such “traps” and stress that the army will deploy only in areas from which Israel genuinely withdraws, while avoiding any internal confrontation with Hezbollah. For its part, Hezbollah – which is not party to the agreement – denounces the framework as an “illegitimate and unconstitutional” deal, and, through allied Lebanese media, restates its rejection of any coordination and its demand for an unconditional full Israeli withdrawal.

In Jerusalem, the Israel Defense Forces express deep scepticism about the Lebanese army’s capacity to restrain Hezbollah. The commander of the IDF’s Givati Brigade told The Jerusalem Post that while allowing the Lebanese army to attempt peacekeeping could provide legitimacy for Israeli actions, the force is too weak to challenge the Shia group. Senior IDF officers view the pilot handover as a field-level arrangement coordinated by US Lieutenant-General Clearfield, who visited Lebanon secretly in early July, and emphasise that any decision on broader withdrawals remains a political matter. Meanwhile, Washington is driving the process as part of an effort, outlined by analysts in Lebanon, to decouple the Lebanese track from escalating US-Iran tensions and to lock in gains before President Joseph Aoun’s White House visit on 21 July.

The next round of US-mediated talks, to be held in Rome on 15–16 July, will focus on forming joint technical committees on security, political affairs, and what Israeli proposals term “good neighbourly relations,” according to a US official. Lebanon has conditioned its participation on Israeli withdrawal from the pilot zones and insists on a strictly technical agenda that does not constitute bilateral peace negotiations. The success of the pilot pullback is thus a critical threshold: if implemented without incident, it could unlock further phases of the framework and strengthen Aoun’s hand in Washington; if stymied by continued Israeli strikes or Hezbollah obstruction, it risks entrenching the cycle of mistrust. The Rome meeting is expected to produce specific steps on the pilot zones and lay the groundwork for the committees that will oversee longer-term security arrangements.