The fifth round of Lebanon-Israel talks convened in Washington in the week of 22 June, with sessions set for 23 and 25 June1. The agenda covers pilot zones where the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) would take exclusive control, and the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group, south of the Litani river, the de facto Israel-Lebanon boundary that marks the southern limit of Hezbollah's permitted presence under the ceasefire framework.
This track runs separately from the Switzerland round, and slower. The pilot-zone framework around Beaufort Castle and the Zawtar villages is the same architecture Hezbollah rejected on 4 June, and the group has offered no binding commitment beyond a stated intent to avoid further fighting.
The Washington round handles the IDF Lebanon presence that Iran threatened on 18 June to annul the memorandum over. Israel paces it, which means the issue Tehran has tied to the survival of the whole deal is being settled on a timetable Israel controls, not one the memorandum sets.
