Lebanon is rejecting US-backed proposals for its troops to co-ordinate directly with the Israeli army, officials said before talks resume in Florida on Tuesday.
They said they expected limited progress before Israel's legislative elections next week.
The latest round of direct talks, bringing together Lebanese and Israeli military delegations in Tampa, follows a decision last month to formally separate the political and military aspects of the negotiations.
The aim is to negotiate an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. The price demanded by Israel is for Hezbollah to be disarmed. However, Lebanon is pushing back against the idea of direct military co-ordination.
“The issue keeps coming up but we always tell them 'no, we will not do that,'” one Lebanese political official close to the discussions said. They added that any future talks must continue to involve American mediation.
“There are Israelis and Lebanese, with the Americans in the middle. That's it and that's how it will remain. Our position has always been that there should be a third party for verification.”
The proposed verification mechanism would oversee the agreements in so-called “pilot zones” – areas of southern Lebanon where Hezbollah would disarm, Israeli forces would withdraw and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) would assume control.
Progress has stalled for months since the first pilot zones were established in July. The process remains untested, with no agreed mechanism to verify compliance by all sides, while critics point out that the initial zones had no Israeli military presence to begin with.
Israel continues to demand Hezbollah's disarmament as a condition for its withdrawal and has cast doubt on the LAF's ability to carry out the process.
Political uncertainty in Israel has further hampered talks, with legislative elections scheduled for the end of the month leaving Lebanese officials expecting little movement on the more contentious issues until the poll is over.
“There's no real political track between [Lebanon and Israel] because there's a dead end until it's clear what the new government in Israel will be,” a political source told The National. The election of a hard-line Israeli government could lead to more delays.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli media on Sunday he does not trust the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah. “That's why we said that as long as it is not disarmed, we will remain in this zone that changed the situation in the north,” Mr Netanyahu said.
One source acknowledged mounting pressure on Lebanon to “do more to show movement on expanding the authority of the state [by] moving against Hezbollah at least in small steps”.
But all Lebanese officials who spoke to The National expressed low expectations for the talks, describing them as largely technical and an opportunity for Lebanon to repeat its demands for a full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied south.
“We don’t expect any major decisions or an expansion of the pilot zones tomorrow and the verification mechanism won't be established,” a military source said. “We will as usual shine a light on the [Israeli] aggression and the ceasefire violations, and demand a full withdrawal from the south – the same demands as always.”
Still, Lebanon sees little alternative to continuing with the negotiations, even as officials increasingly question whether they can produce Israeli concessions. Lebanon entered direct talks hoping the US would use its leverage over Israel to secure an end to attacks in the south and begin a phased Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
Instead, Israeli military operations and demolitions have continued alongside the discussions, including beyond the boundaries of Israel's own declared “security” zone – leaving Lebanese officials in doubt as to what the diplomatic process has achieved so far.
