U.S. Official Claims Israel Pulled Back From Part of Southern Lebanon; Jerusalem and Beirut Deny It

The third and final day of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon is expected to begin today (Thursday) in Washington, after a dispute erupted just hours before discussions were set to resume over an American report claiming that the IDF had already carried out a partial withdrawal from southern Lebanon. The claim, published by Reuters and attributed to a senior official serving under the U.S. secretary of state, was met with denials from both Israel and Lebanon.

According to the report, Israel withdrew from part of the buffer zone in southern Lebanon. The senior American official described the move as a "gesture of goodwill" toward the Lebanese government and called on Beirut to respond accordingly: "Israel has already taken a concrete step by withdrawing from part of its buffer zone. This is a significant demonstration of goodwill toward the legitimate government of Lebanon."

At the same time, the official did not specify how much territory the Israeli forces had allegedly left, nor did they say in which areas the withdrawal had supposedly taken place. Shortly after the report was published, Israeli officials moved quickly to clarify that no such withdrawal had occurred. The denials came from both the political leadership and the IDF.

On the Lebanese side as well, the claims were rejected. A senior Lebanese official said that Lebanon is not aware of any Israeli withdrawal from the buffer zone in the country’s south, and that it has no information indicating any change in the deployment of forces on the ground.

The uproar surrounding the report comes at an especially sensitive moment, as contacts between the two countries are nearing a conclusion. Earlier this week, Israeli media reported that Israel is expected to propose, as part of the talks, a model of partial withdrawal and a regional pilot program under which the Lebanese army would assume security responsibility in defined areas.

The talks in Washington are expected to conclude this afternoon, after three days of discussions held in two parallel tracks — diplomatic and military. Heading the diplomatic team are Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, and Yossi Dreznin, the prime minister’s envoy and a senior official in the National Security Council. At the same time, the military team is being led by Michael Levin, head of the strategy division, and Eric Ben-Dov, acting military attaché.