The U.S. military coordinator said Israel will not withdraw from southern Lebanon before upcoming elections and that the Israeli prime minister is reluctant to resume negotiations.
General Joseph Clearfield, head of the U.S. military coordination group for Lebanon, told Army Commander Rodolphe Haykal on Monday that Israel will not withdraw from any area of the south before the next elections and that the Israeli prime minister has little appetite for returning to talks.
Clearfield conveyed that Washington is pursuing three tracks in parallel. The first aims to force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to the negotiating table. The second seeks to halt shelling and explosions in the south. The third addresses the deadlock over who withdraws first, which remains unresolved between the Israeli military, which insists on verifying Hezbollah disarmament before pulling back, and the Lebanese army, which wants Israeli withdrawal first so it can deploy its own forces and clear the territory.
Clearfield transmitted American frustration with recent Israeli statements about remaining in the south, according to the information. He noted that Israel has raised its demands, linking any new buffer zone to dismantling Hezbollah's infrastructure in the Aliyya Tahir heights.
The U.S. general appeared to express hope that the outcome of Israel's upcoming elections might change the trajectory of talks, reflecting the current impasse with Netanyahu over a settlement. The information suggests Washington views electoral shifts in Israel as a potential opening for progress.
The condition that any new experimental zone be tied to the dismantling of Hezbollah's structure in the Aliyya Tahir heights represents a significant escalation of Israeli demands. This linkage effectively ties a local security arrangement to a far broader objective of dismantling the armed group's military capacity.
The question of who withdraws first has proven to be a central obstacle throughout the negotiations. Lebanon's position rests on the premise that Israeli withdrawal must precede Lebanese army deployment, while Israel seeks guarantees of Hezbollah disarmament as a prerequisite for its own pullback.
The three-track approach outlined by Clearfield suggests the United States recognizes that progress cannot come on a single front. Each track addresses a different obstacle, reflecting acknowledgment that the parties remain far apart on fundamental issues.
The reference to upcoming Israeli elections introduces a temporal element to the negotiations. Both sides may calculate that electoral outcomes could shift the political will for a settlement, making the timing of any agreement contingent on political developments beyond Lebanon's control.
What happens next depends partly on whether the Israeli elections produce a government more willing to negotiate and partly on whether either side moves from its stated position on sequencing and preconditions. For now, the U.S. diplomatic effort continues on multiple fronts with no clear prospect of imminent agreement.
