Beirut, August 8, 2026 (Ghufran):Lebanon and Israel have agreed on a shortlist of countries that could send troops to verify the disarmament of Hezbollah under a US-brokered agreement, a Lebanese official said on Friday.The official declined to identify the countries on the shortlist or disclose how many countries were included. The United States is expected to select one or more countries from the list.The shortlist was finalized during meetings between Lebanese and Israeli officials at the US embassy in Rome this week. The talks focused on implementing a June 26 agreement linking Israel’s gradual withdrawal of troops from Lebanon to the disarmament of Hezbollah, which would be verified by a third party.Hezbollah is not a party to the agreement and has refused to surrender its weapons.
“We have reached a short list of countries. We decided which parties were impossible for each and set the potential actors,” the Lebanese official said, adding that the United States would now make the final selection and could choose more than one country.There was no immediate response from Israel’s Foreign Ministry regarding the shortlist. A US State Department spokesperson described the talks as “productive on the technical and expert levels” but did not provide further details.