Lebanon and Israel held a fresh round of US-sponsored talks in Rome on Tuesday, with Beirut seeking Israel’s phased withdrawal from the country’s south, even as the Hezbollah terror group denounced the negotiations as a “humiliation” for Beirut.

Convoys carrying delegations from the two countries arrived at the US embassy in the Italian capital in the morning, where discussions were scheduled to run until Thursday. The Israeli delegation included officials from the Israel Defense Forces, The Times of Israel learned.

At negotiations in Washington in June, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon’s south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as “pilot zones.”

This week’s negotiations mark the seventh round of Washington-mediated talks since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people. The Lebanese figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Hezbollah condemns talks, Lebanon fires back

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Tuesday slammed the talks and said that the direct negotiations would bring Lebanon “nothing but shame, humiliation, and successive compromises.”

In a televised address, he also criticized Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, saying he “has not acted as an arbiter, nor as a unifying figure, but has become biased and divisive, which is incompatible with his role and with Lebanon’s strength.”

Hours later, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam fired back, saying Hezbollah had dragged the country into war.

Without mentioning the Iran-backed terror group by name, Salam wrote on X that “the greatest support for Israel was provided by the one who distinguished himself by dragging Lebanon into futile war adventures, giving it pretexts to commit aggressions against our country, trample its sovereignty, destroy its cities and villages, kill its sons, and displace them by the hundreds of thousands.”

He said that the ones who “tie Lebanon to external calculations and axes… have no right to hand out........

© The Times of Israel