Overview

• U.S. special envoy Thomas Barrack said he was “unbelievably satisfied” after receiving Lebanon’s seven-page response to Washington’s four-month disarmament proposal on July 7.
• The Lebanese reply conditions Hezbollah’s full disarmament on an Israeli pullback from five strategic positions and a halt to air strikes in southern Lebanon.
• Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem declared on July 6 that the militia will not relinquish its weapons until Israel ends its aggression and withdraws troops from Lebanese territory.
• Since the November ceasefire, Israel has kept forces deployed inside Lebanon and carried out near-daily air raids that the Lebanese Health Ministry says have killed around 250 people.
• The Lebanese Armed Forces have begun dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure north of the Litani River to restore the state’s monopoly on force.