BEIRUT — The next round of United States-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon has been postponed as Israeli forces continue to strike and demolish buildings across southern Lebanon, AFP and AP reported via Al Jazeera.
An unnamed U.S. official told AFP that talks planned for this month in Rome will not happen until October. Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors are instead to meet at the State Department next week on a June framework agreement under which the Lebanese army would disarm Hezbollah in “pilot zones.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, visiting war-hit Nabatieh on Saturday, said there would be “no new negotiations with Israel at the moment,” while pledging withdrawal, return of prisoners and displaced people, and reconstruction as national principles.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would remain in southern Lebanon to stop Hezbollah from re-establishing itself. The same day, Israeli forces detonated 1,100 tonnes of explosives at what they called a Hezbollah command complex in the Ali al-Taher Ridge. Local reports put at least 29 people killed in the Nabatieh area in the past two weeks.
Sources: Al Jazeera (AFP/AP)
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