A Lebanese official source told AFP on Saturday that Lebanon will participate in the talks scheduled for next week with Israel in Rome.

This comes as a US military delegation is holding talks in Lebanon to discuss mechanisms for implementing an Israeli withdrawal from a "pilot" area in the south of the country.

The source said "Lebanon will participate," after a diplomatic source monitoring the negotiations had earlier reported that Lebanon is conditioning Israel's withdrawal from two pilot areas in the south to agree to participate in a new round of talks.

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Earlier, a US official said the United States has moved to the implementation phase of the general framework regulating understandings between Lebanon and Israel.

The official explained, in remarks to Sky News Arabia, that the upcoming Rome meetings will be closed and "will represent the beginning of the transition from political understandings to field implementation."

The Italian capital is preparing to host a new round of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on July 15 and 16, with US mediation, as part of following up on the implementation of the framework agreement announced in late June.

The US official added that "the Rome meetings will allow the two governments to refer files to technical teams, which will handle all issues included in the general framework, in preparation for implementing its provisions on the ground."

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Lebanon and Israel: the pilot areas, the upcoming test