Negotiations over a full Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon have hit a significant impasse, with Lebanon's prime minister pressing for a concrete timetable, Israel insisting it will stay until Hezbollah disarms, and Hezbollah itself rejecting the framework that underpins the talks entirely.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met US Ambassador to Beirut Michel Issa and General Joseph Clearfield, who leads the US military coordination group for Lebanon, on Friday to advance what negotiators call the "military track" of a framework agreement signed in late June. That trilateral accord — involving Lebanon, Israel and the United States — envisions a phased Israeli withdrawal from a strip of Lebanese territory it has occupied since late 2024, conditional on the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed movement. Salam called on Israel to halt ongoing demolition operations, expand so-called "pilot zones" from which its forces would begin pulling back, and commit to a clear withdrawal schedule. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who met the same US officials separately, was more blunt: "The key to stability remains forcing Israel to stop its war and withdraw to the international border."

Israel shows no sign of budging. Defence Minister Israel Katz, who visited Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon this week, reiterated that troops would remain in what Israel terms a "security zone" — a strip roughly ten kilometres deep along the border — until Hezbollah is fully disarmed. "We will not withdraw under any circumstances from the security zones: not in Lebanon, not in Syria, not in Gaza," Katz said. His forces have continued demolishing homes and underground infrastructure throughout the occupied area. Ambassador Issa acknowledged the deadlock but called the latest talks "positive", telling reporters that Israeli attacks would cease only if Hezbollah surrendered its weapons: "If they give up their weapons, everything will stop."

Adding a further layer of complexity, Hezbollah's leader Naim Qassem sharply criticised Lebanon's own government for engaging with the framework at all, accusing Beirut of exposing the Lebanese army to "ongoing humiliation" by pressing it to deploy in areas still subject to Israeli strikes. Qassem pointed to continued Israeli attacks inside Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh — the first designated pilot zone where Lebanese troops are already present — as evidence that the agreement is unworkable. He challenged officials to "name a single achievement from the seven rounds of negotiations."

Why this matters: The ceasefire framework was intended to translate a pause in fighting into a durable political settlement, but the distance between the parties remains vast. Lebanese authorities say Israeli operations since March have killed more than 4,300 people, wounded over 12,000 and displaced more than a million. A new round of talks is expected in Rome in early September, though there is little public sign of the concessions that would be needed to break the deadlock.