WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that Israel and Lebanon were discussing a potential scale-back of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon as part of the negotiations mediated by President Donald Trump’s administration in Washington this week.

“One of the issues that’s been discussed in these negotiations is the creation of pilot zones — specific, defined areas where the Lebanese Armed Forces can go in, take control, and secure that territory, and then move on to the next pilot zone,” Rubio told reporters in Kuwait.

Rubio defended the current Israeli military buffer zone in southern Lebanon, saying the only reason that it exists is because Hezbollah was using the area to launch rockets and drones at Israel.

“The more of that area that the Lebanese armed forces is able to secure, the less of it is in Hezbollah’s control, the less Israel will be in Lebanon. But that’s the process we’re working on right now with these talks,” Rubio said.

That effort did not appear to be going well though, with a government official and a second source familiar with the matter telling The Times of Israel later Wednesday that this week’s round of talks between Israel and Lebanon have been the least productive to date.

The two sources cited mutual frustration with the Trump administration’s decision to make a ceasefire in Lebanon part of the memorandum of understanding it inked last week with Iran.

Both Israel and Lebanon were opposed to the idea, arguing that it undermines the purpose of the channel between their two countries that Washington established in April, specifically to prevent Iran from maintaining its influence over Hezbollah and Lebanon, the two sources said.

The Israeli anger at Washington has led it to be less inclined to accept US requests that it begin pulling back some troops from southern Lebanon, the government official said.

Lebanon, meanwhile, feels that it must take a harder line in negotiations with Israel to counter the notion that Iran wields greater influence over affairs in Lebanese territory than it does, the source familiar with the matter explained.

Accordingly, the Lebanese........

© The Times of Israel