Lebanon calls for reciprocal progress in agreements with Israel — The National

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, during a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, US, called for stepping up the implementation of agreements between Lebanon and Israel through a reciprocal and gradual process with a clear timetable and reliable verification. This was reported by The National.

Salam said the implementation of the agreements should take place in parallel with the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the extension of Lebanese state authority. He also expressed hope for a renewed partnership with the US that, he said, would align with the course of rebuilding the state and strengthening its legitimate institutions.

Negotiations on the framework agreement, mediated by the US and initially agreed by the parties in June, have slowed amid continued Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon despite the declared ceasefire. One of the key parts of the agreements is the disarmament of Hezbollah, which Lebanon has not yet carried out.

Sequence of implementing the agreements

The main disagreement concerns the sequence of actions: Lebanon wants to first see a further withdrawal of Israeli forces, while Israel wants Hezbollah to be disarmed first. This has led to a stalemate in the negotiations.

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Hanin Ghaddar, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute, said that Israel had already withdrawn from one “pilot zone,” where Lebanon deployed its army. In her view, the next step should be the disarmament and dismantling of the group before demanding a further withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Salam's statement did not directly mention the disarmament or dismantling of Hezbollah. Instead, he spoke about concentrating weapons in the hands of the state and its exclusive right to possess weapons. Ghaddar also believes that the US should create a verification mechanism and use, among other measures, sanctions to weaken Hezbollah's influence in Lebanese state institutions.

Contacts with the IMF

Lebanon's Finance Minister Yassine Jaber was also in Washington to meet with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. Lebanon seeks to reach a new staff-level agreement with the IMF.

The country reached a previous agreement at this level in April 2022 after the economic crisis but was slow to implement the required changes. According to government estimates from 2022, Lebanon's losses from the financial crisis amounted to about $70 billion.