Italy, UK, Switzerland, Indonesia may participate in pilot zones mechanism
Italy, Britain, Switzerland and Indonesia may participate in a mechanism to verify Hezbollah's disarmament in the so-called pilot zones in south Lebanon, w diplomatic source told Al-Arabiya television.
A Lebanese official had previously confirmed to Reuters that Lebanon and Israel had agreed on a shortlist of countries that could send forces to verify Hezbollah's disarmament under a U.S.-brokered agreement. The U.S. is expected to select the countries from this list.
The official declined to name any of the countries on the shortlist or specify their number. Another Lebanese official and two foreign diplomats had previously told Reuters that Israel and the U.S. had excluded France from the list.
The list was drawn up during meetings held between Lebanon and Israel at the U.S. Embassy in Rome this week, in the latest round of talks on how to implement the June 26 agreement, which links the phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon to the disarmament of Hezbollah, to be "verified" by a third party.
The Lebanese official said Beirut had rejected a previous proposal to have private security companies take over the role of the third party tasked with verifying Hezbollah's disarmament.
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