JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The French news agency AFP quoted an official Lebanese source who confirmed that Lebanon will participate in the talks scheduled to take place this week with Israel in Rome, while an American military delegation is holding discussions in Lebanon regarding mechanisms for implementing an Israeli withdrawal from a test region in the south of the country.

The source said that “Lebanon will participate” in the round of talks scheduled to be held in Rome on July 15 and 16, after a diplomatic source familiar with the negotiations said that Lebanon had conditioned its participation in a new round of talks on Israel withdrawing from two test areas in southern Lebanon, which will then be transferred to the Lebanese Army.

The next round of negotiations will take place just days before the planned visit of the Lebanese president to Washington at the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump. The Lebanese presidency announced last Thursday that the visit would take place during the final week of July.

A diplomatic source reported that Lebanon had made Israel’s withdrawal from two test areas in the south a condition for its participation. An American military delegation is holding meetings with the Lebanese Armed Forces command to discuss mechanisms for implementing the withdrawal of IDF forces from areas in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon and Israel signed a framework agreement in Washington on June 26, which established the disarmament of Hezbollah and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, with the Lebanese army scheduled to deploy initially in two designated test areas.

The framework agreement does not specify a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Israel has repeatedly stated that IDF forces will not withdraw from a security zone extending 10 kilometers deep from its borders until Hezbollah is disarmed, a step that military analysts doubt the Lebanese state is capable of carrying out.

Hezbollah refuses to surrender its weapons or engage in direct negotiations with Israel, relying on Iran to halt the war with Israel.