Israeli and Lebanese delegations are holding US-brokered talks in Washington, focused on reducing the growing Iran-Lebanon link amid the wider regional framework created by President Donald Trump’s deal with Iran. Against that backdrop, Israel says it does not see itself as bound by Trump’s Lebanon understandings and is insisting that any change on the ground meet strict security terms.
According to a report in Israel Hayom, Israel has drawn up three minimum conditions before it would consider any withdrawal of IDF forces from southern Lebanon. The first is moving all Hezbollah operatives north of the Litani River and completely dismantling every terror infrastructure the group built south of the river.
The second condition is full operational freedom for the IDF, including the Air Force and ground forces, so they can act independently against future security threats. The third is that Israel retain a permanent forward security strip, similar to current Israeli security arrangements in Syria and Gaza.
Israeli officials say this means there can be no full withdrawal at any stage, and that the yellow line will remain in place even if Hezbollah is removed from south of the Litani and the other demands are met. Senior political and military leaders are said to agree that no pullback should happen outside this framework, although Israel is prepared to consider a pilot transfer of some areas currently held by the IDF to the Lebanese army to test whether local forces can clear the area of hostile elements.
