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'Rome 2': Lebanon Seeks to Free Expanded 'Pilot Zones' From Israeli Election Calculations

Lebanese soldiers patrol in Zawtar al-Gharbiya on July 28, 2026, as residents return to inspect their homes after the army deployed to the southern village last week as part of a framework deal reached with Israel (Photo by Joseph EID / AFP)
Lebanese soldiers patrol in Zawtar al-Gharbiya on July 28, 2026, as residents return to inspect their homes after the army deployed to the southern village last week as part of a framework deal reached with Israel (Photo by Joseph EID / AFP)
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'Rome 2': Lebanon Seeks to Free Expanded 'Pilot Zones' From Israeli Election Calculations

Lebanese soldiers patrol in Zawtar al-Gharbiya on July 28, 2026, as residents return to inspect their homes after the army deployed to the southern village last week as part of a framework deal reached with Israel (Photo by Joseph EID / AFP)
Lebanese soldiers patrol in Zawtar al-Gharbiya on July 28, 2026, as residents return to inspect their homes after the army deployed to the southern village last week as part of a framework deal reached with Israel (Photo by Joseph EID / AFP)

Lebanese-Israeli negotiations under US sponsorship are set to resume in a seventh round, with Rome hosting the talks for a second time on Aug. 4-6, as southern Lebanon stands on the brink of renewed escalation. The meeting comes after Israel carried out its threat to retaliate against Hezbollah for launching a drone targeting an Israeli military vehicle by detonating a network of tunnels beneath Beaufort Castle. Israel also warned of further strikes that could target the Ali Al-Taher hills, where Hezbollah fighters are positioned despite the area being under Israeli fire control.

The "Rome 2" meeting, which will bring together political and military representatives from the three parties that signed the Framework Agreement, will test Washington's willingness to restrain Israel and curb any slide toward escalation. It will also provide the Lebanese delegation with another opportunity to demand that the ceasefire be consolidated to include all hostile acts and for the pilot zones to be expanded to include towns that Israel still occupies within the "Yellow Line," which Israel has turned into a security zone while linking any withdrawal to Hezbollah's disarmament. The talks are also expected to address the Lebanese Army's recent statement holding Israel responsible for obstructing implementation of the agreement.

In this context, a Lebanese source directly involved in the negotiations said the delegation would seek to add towns of symbolic importance to the pilot zones. The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that it would propose including the towns of Bint Jbeil and Khiam.

Betting on the Framework Agreement

The source said Lebanon has no option but to rely on the US-backed Framework Agreement, supported by President Donald Trump, after Hezbollah's military approach had plunged the country into a costly human and material disaster.

"Who is more capable than Washington of pressuring Israel to stop razing towns along the Yellow Line and systematically destroying the homes that remain there, while also expanding the pilot zones by freeing them from Israeli election calculations? There is no interest in keeping us on a waiting list," the source said.

The source added that Israel had been compelled to yield to US pressure by joining the Framework Agreement, despite previously rejecting all forms of negotiations with Lebanon. Israel had expected President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to reject the deal under pressure from the Shiite Duo, which supports the Memorandum of Understanding, but that expectation proved unfounded, the source said, adding that Israel is now attempting to obstruct implementation of the agreement.

Asked about the agenda, the source said "Rome 2" would discuss establishing a special mechanism to verify the Lebanese Army's deployment in the pilot zones to ensure it maintains control and that no armed Hezbollah groups enter them. The source said the army has already taken strict measures to extend state authority.

The source added: "We support forming it with monitors headed by a US general," referring to Joseph Clearfield, who had been expected to arrive in Beirut but instead traveled to Saudi Arabia to participate in the maritime defense conference hosted by the Kingdom to enhance the protection of maritime routes and prevent threats to them.

The source said the verification committee would begin work immediately after it is formed. The source also praised cooperation between army units and residents returning to their towns, saying the army has been providing them with every possible form of assistance. Cooperation between the two sides has been excellent, the source said, and nothing has occurred so far to undermine the army's deployment. The source added that 15 families from the town of Zawtar Al-Gharbiya had once again been displaced in search of safety following fears of an Israeli response to Hezbollah's drone attack on an Israeli military vehicle.

Mohammed Sobeih laughs as he smokes a cigarette while sitting amid the rubble of his home after returning to it following the Israeli military operation in Zawtar al-Gharbieh, Lebanon, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Hezbollah Unlikely to Escalate

The source said Hezbollah is unlikely to escalate in support of Iran should the confrontation between Tehran and Washington intensify, arguing that current circumstances differ from those during its previous intervention on Iran's behalf. Hezbollah, the source said, cannot withstand another wave of displacement after hundreds of thousands of residents have returned to their towns and homes.

Such a move would also put Hezbollah at odds with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who criticized the group's previous intervention on Iran's behalf following Israel's assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, despite Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem having pledged to Berri that the group would not become involved. It would also place Hezbollah at odds with the broader Shiite public mood, which seeks stability and opposes another round of displacement, the source said.

The source added that the Lebanese delegation to the seventh round of negotiations is counting on US support following the Washington summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Joseph Aoun. The source expressed hope that the summit's outcome would translate into concrete steps reflecting the Lebanese Army's statement accusing Israel of obstructing implementation of the agreement and expanding the pilot zones to include occupied towns, with Bint Jbeil and Khiam, or one of them, among the preferred options.

The source said expanding the pilot zones would face resistance from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains determined not to withdraw from the security zone, while Defense Minister Israel Katz is seeking to impose what the source described as the "Gaza model" there. Lebanon, meanwhile, hopes Washington will intervene to prevent the fate of the so-called security zone from remaining tied to Israeli elections scheduled for Oct. 27.

Lebanon, the source said, has fulfilled all of its obligations and responded to Washington's request to engage in direct negotiations with Israel under US sponsorship, with the United States acting as guarantor of efforts to extend state authority across all Lebanese territory. The aim, the source said, is to send a message to the Shiite Duo that the Lebanese state's approach is the correct one and that there will be no retreat from the principle that arms must remain exclusively in the hands of the state.

The source concluded by asking whether Trump would honor his commitment by preventing Lebanon from remaining hostage to Israeli election calculations and instead pave the way for the phased implementation of the Framework Agreement. Leaving the process stalled, the source argued, would provide the Shiite Duo with justification for maintaining its support for the Memorandum of Understanding rather than strengthening President Aoun, the government, and their supporters in defending Lebanon's decision to engage in direct negotiations under US sponsorship, though not "the Iranian way."

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Arab World

Yemen Interior Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: Iran Seeking to Militarize Bab al-Mandeb Through the Houthis

Yemen’s interior minister warned that Iran was seeking to “militarize Bab al-Mandeb” through the Houthis. (Turky Al-Agili)
Yemen’s interior minister warned that Iran was seeking to “militarize Bab al-Mandeb” through the Houthis. (Turky Al-Agili)
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Yemen Interior Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: Iran Seeking to Militarize Bab al-Mandeb Through the Houthis

Yemen’s interior minister warned that Iran was seeking to “militarize Bab al-Mandeb” through the Houthis. (Turky Al-Agili)
Yemen’s interior minister warned that Iran was seeking to “militarize Bab al-Mandeb” through the Houthis. (Turky Al-Agili)

Yemen’s Interior Minister Major General Ibrahim Haidan warned that Iran is seeking to establish long-term military influence over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and its surrounding islands and coastlines by exporting to the Red Sea the model it developed to “militarize maritime corridors” in the Strait of Hormuz.

Haidan said experts from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were helping the Houthis strengthen their capabilities and build fortifications, operations rooms and facilities for missiles, drones and remotely guided boats.

“The danger is not limited to the threats that exist today, but extends to what is being built for the future,” Haidan told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He warned that continued Houthi control of strategic areas could give Iran leverage over one of the world’s most important shipping lanes and help it connect Yemen with the Horn of Africa through smuggling networks and armed groups.

His remarks followed sweeping government losses along Yemen’s western coast. In an offensive from Sept. 3 to 11, the Houthis seized Hays, Al-Khokha, Mokha and its port before advancing to Bab al-Mandeb, Mayyun Island and the remaining Yemeni islands in the southern Red Sea.

Haidan said security readiness had been raised in Aden, Lahj and areas behind the frontlines following the developments in Mokha and along the western coast.

The defense and interior ministries were coordinating through a joint operations room to prevent operatives and cells from infiltrating those areas or exploiting waves of displacement to carry out security breaches, he added.

‘Militarizing’ Bab al-Mandeb

Haidan placed the latest developments in a broader context, saying Yemen was “part of a regional and international security system” and that events there quickly reverberated around the world because of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

The gravest danger, he said, was the military infrastructure being built in the area for future use.

Experts linked to the IRGC were providing the Houthis with expertise and guidance to conduct operations and develop their military capabilities, he said.

Those efforts included building “capabilities, fortifications, bases, operations rooms and caves used to manufacture drones and remotely guided boats and to develop missiles” across Bab al-Mandeb and the surrounding islands, coastlines and highlands.

Haidan said Iran aimed to replicate in Bab al-Mandeb its experience of “militarizing maritime corridors” in the Strait of Hormuz.

That could turn an open international waterway into a source of influence and pressure for future use, he warned.

Iranian and Houthi assurances about the safety of navigation should not be treated as sufficient guarantees, he said, arguing that such messages merely gave the Houthis more time to expand their military systems and fortifications.

Houthi leaders at Mokha port after its capture (Houthi media)

Could Mayyun become another Larak?

Haidan outlined a more specific threat to the Red Sea islands, warning that additional time could allow the Houthis to build bases, hideouts and fortified caves, backed by advanced surveillance, tracking and jamming systems.

Mayyun Island, at the heart of Bab al-Mandeb, could take on a military role similar to that of Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, he said.

Zuqar and the Hanish Islands, as well as the highlands and coastlines along the Red Sea, could also become part of an “integrated military system” if the Houthis consolidated their presence in the strait, he added.

From the Red Sea to the Horn of Africa

The danger extends beyond Bab al-Mandeb, according to Haidan.

Houthi control of the strait could give the Revolutionary Guards greater scope to connect Yemen with the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, he said.

Smuggling networks and maritime routes could be used to move weapons, equipment and expertise, strengthen Houthi military and logistical capabilities and expand communication with armed groups and terrorist organizations operating in the Horn of Africa, particularly Somalia’s al Shabaab.

Haidan warned that those groups’ capabilities could merge with those of the Houthis and IRGC networks.

Such coordination could turn Bab al-Mandeb into “a foothold for multifaceted Iranian influence across several arenas” and give Tehran a strategic tool to deploy during any regional escalation, he said.

Destruction in Mokha after being attacked by the Houthis. (Getty Images)

Coastguard needs urgent support

Government forces continue to confront the Houthis and work to regain and secure lost territory, Haidan stressed.

He singled out smuggling as one of the main arteries for financing and supplying the Houthis.

Yemen’s coastguard was carrying out its duties despite limited resources, but needed “urgent, specialized support” from allied and friendly countries, he remarked.

That support should include maritime surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, tracking and monitoring systems, patrol boats and modern equipment. Intelligence capabilities must also be strengthened to uncover smuggling networks, track their routes and intercept their shipments, he added.

Protecting Bab al-Mandeb and combating smuggling were no longer purely domestic Yemeni concerns, Haidan declared.

“The security of navigation and international trade routes begins with the state exercising sovereignty over its territory and waters,” he said.

Confronting the threats required regional and international support for the Yemeni state and stronger state capabilities, he added.

Securing Aden and Lahj

Security deployments have been reinforced at the entrances to Lahj province, the interim capital Aden and surrounding areas as displacement increased following the developments along the western coast, Haidan said.

The Interior Ministry treated the crisis as extending beyond the military frontlines. It acted simultaneously to protect displaced civilians and raise security readiness under plans prepared in advance for different scenarios.

The measures sought to balance the protection of displaced people with the need to stop the Houthis from exploiting their movement “for security purposes or to carry out infiltration and penetration operations,” he said.

Authorities have stepped up coordination and information-sharing among security agencies, local authorities and military units. They have also intensified preemptive intelligence efforts to prevent operatives from entering government-held areas or carrying out acts of sabotage.

A view of a village on the coast of Bab al-Mandeb, Yemen April 2, 2026. (Reuters)

Joint operations room

The defense and interior ministries were coordinating through a “joint operations room,” Haidan said.

Its work included producing a unified assessment of the situation, assigning responsibilities and speeding up responses to developments on the ground.

Security and military services had also strengthened communication and information-sharing, focusing on frontlines, roads and areas that could be used to infiltrate operatives and cells or transport weapons and explosive devices.

Displacement remained “primarily a humanitarian issue,” Haidan said, but it also required careful security management to prevent it from being used as cover to infiltrate operatives or cells into government-held areas.

Sleeper cells and smuggling

Asked about the threats facing the security services, Haidan cited infiltration attempts and the potential use of displacement movements to conceal operatives or transport information and materials for acts of sabotage.

Sleeper cells, smuggling networks and organized crime also posed risks, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The heightened security measures in Aden and Lahj were largely “preventive and preemptive,” Haidan explained. They aimed to stop military pressure on the frontlines from spilling into cities while preserving a humanitarian approach toward displaced people.

People fleeing clashes between Houthi militants and Yemeni government forces gather at the Markazi refugee camp after arriving in Djibouti, September 15, 2026. (Mylaèle Negga/International Organization for Migration/Handout via Reuters)

Mokha a ‘practical test’

Haidan described the events in Mokha as a “direct and practical test” of the security establishment’s readiness and the Interior Ministry’s contingency plans.

From the outset, those plans accounted for advances and retreats, shifting frontlines, widening displacement and mounting pressure on provinces behind the fronts, he said.

Protecting the home front was not a temporary task tied to a particular military development, but an “integral and permanent” part of the Interior Ministry’s work.

Resources and security deployments had been adjusted to battlefield developments, while information-sharing among security agencies, local authorities and military forces had been strengthened, he added.

‘Collusion’ with terrorist groups

Beyond the Houthi threat, Haidan warned that terrorist organizations, smuggling networks and organized crime groups could exploit the widening war, shifting frontlines and troop redeployments to create security vacuums.

He said there was “collusion” between the Houthis and those groups and networks. The relationship predated the latest developments and included links with Somalia’s al Shabaab.

Security agencies did not treat the Houthi threat, terrorism, organized crime and smuggling as separate files, but as “a single security system,” Haidan said.

That required heightened readiness, stronger deployments in sensitive areas and tighter monitoring of entry points, roads and smuggling routes to prevent the military developments from triggering a broader security crisis.

Arab World

US Warns Houthis Through Security Channels: We Are Not Negotiating with You

A soldier from the Yemeni armed forces in Taiz province. (AFP)
A soldier from the Yemeni armed forces in Taiz province. (AFP)
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US Warns Houthis Through Security Channels: We Are Not Negotiating with You

A soldier from the Yemeni armed forces in Taiz province. (AFP)
A soldier from the Yemeni armed forces in Taiz province. (AFP)

US correspondence reviewed by Asharq Al-Awsat revealed that Washington had issued a warning to the Houthis in Yemen through “security channels.”

The substance of the warning was not disclosed in the messages, but it was followed by a US assertion that Washington was not negotiating with the group.

The Houthis’ outreach suggests that the group is seeking to consolidate its position after weeks of military operations culminated in advances along Yemen’s western coast overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The gains pose a fresh threat to international shipping through the strategic waterway, which carries 12% of global trade.

The clarification in the US diplomatic correspondence came after President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance said there had been contact with the group, although neither explained the nature of the communication.

Meanwhile, during a UN Security Council session on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday, Washington stated: “The US supports Yemen’s legitimate government in confronting the Iran-backed Houthi militia. We call on the Houthis to halt their advance, withdraw from the territory they have seized and stop launching attacks.”

On the ground, Yemen’s government is raising its level of military readiness as it seeks to regain the initiative following recent setbacks on the Taiz and western coastal fronts. Government forces have made slow but seemingly more sustained progress on other fronts, including in al-Jawf and al-Bayda, while continuing to repel Houthi attacks and military buildups near Marib.

Government forces are engaged in fierce battles with the Houthis, which began escalating their operations in August.

The group’s opponents accuse it of violating de-escalation arrangements under orders intended to ease pressure on Iran and enable Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to use the Houthis as leverage against the United States in the war Washington launched in February 2026, which intensified after Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Why security channels?

Observers who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat said the mere use of security channels did not indicate that negotiations or a deal were underway, or even that Washington had accepted the Houthis’ assurances.

Assessing the Houthi move and the US response, Baraa Shiban, an associate fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, said the group was trying to compensate for its lack of regional and international recognition by exaggerating claims that it had opened channels of communication with the US administration.

Asked about the “security channels,” Shiban said Western governments commonly maintained this type of contact with militias and terrorist groups. Such communication, however, remained limited, took place outside diplomatic or political frameworks and dealt only with sensitive or urgent security matters.

Iranian tactics

News that the Houthis had contacted the United States was not treated as a passing development. Yemenis sought to understand the group’s sudden move, particularly because its slogan calls for “death to America”, raising the question of how it could communicate with Washington.

Mahmoud Shehrah, an associate fellow at Britain’s Chatham House, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the development was “part of a Houthi strategy that represents an extension of Iran’s and the Revolutionary Guards’ conduct and negotiating tactics.”

Shehrah, a former Yemeni diplomat, said the Houthis’ approach was based on gradually escalating tensions, launching a swift offensive and then offering assurances if they made gains, in an effort to avoid becoming embroiled in an all-out war.

That, he said, was what had happened in Bab al-Mandeb. The Houthis had now “taken a big bite” and were trying to digest it. The group was therefore seeking to consolidate its gains and, in the meantime, needed to offer assurances to prevent a swift response. It consequently sought to reassure the US and the international community.

The group also consistently sought to isolate its opponents, a tactic it had repeatedly employed in the past.

Shehrah recalled that when the Houthis captured Sanaa, they began by reassuring all political forces. Once they had consolidated their presence, they met each party separately and told it that the other side was the enemy, until they had eliminated them all.

He said the group now wanted to employ the same approach internationally, regardless of whether it could succeed.

Arab World

Syria Parliament Votes to Abolish Assad-Era Terrorism Court, Nullify Rulings

Members of Syria's newly formed People's Assembly attend the body's inaugural session, the first parliament session since the end of the rule of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, July 12, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of Syria's newly formed People's Assembly attend the body's inaugural session, the first parliament session since the end of the rule of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, July 12, 2026. (Reuters)
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Syria Parliament Votes to Abolish Assad-Era Terrorism Court, Nullify Rulings

Members of Syria's newly formed People's Assembly attend the body's inaugural session, the first parliament session since the end of the rule of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, July 12, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of Syria's newly formed People's Assembly attend the body's inaugural session, the first parliament session since the end of the rule of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, July 12, 2026. (Reuters)

Syria's parliament voted on Wednesday ‌to abolish an Assad-era terrorism court and nullify the legal effects of its rulings, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV reported, in one of the first significant legislative moves by the country's new assembly.

The Counter-Terrorism Court was established in 2012 as then-President Bashar al-Assad sought to suppress an uprising against his rule, and it was used to prosecute thousands of Syrians for terrorism-related offences.

The move formalizes the court's abolition after Syria's new authorities had already treated it as defunct. ‌In June 2025, President ‌Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a decree dismissing ‌67 ⁠judges who had served ⁠in what he described at the time as the "abolished Counter-Terrorism Court".

Syria's March 2025 constitutional declaration had also called for abolishing the effects of what it described as unjust rulings issued by the court, including returning confiscated property.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee said in 2024 that the ⁠2012 law establishing the court failed to ‌adequately provide key judicial guarantees ‌and raised concerns over arbitrary detention, torture or ill-treatment, and the ‌court's independence. It also noted that the court was ‌permitted to depart from ordinary procedures during prosecution and trial.

The UN's International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism said in a 2024 report that the Counter-Terrorism Court formed part of the judicial system through ‌which detainees held by Assad-era security agencies could be prosecuted. The report documented widespread and ⁠systematic torture ⁠and ill-treatment across the government's detention system.

Wednesday's vote came during the opening weeks of the first parliament formed since Assad was toppled in December 2024. The chamber convened for the first time in July.

The vote is among the assembly's first major legislative decisions after it spent its initial sessions establishing its internal rules and committees. It held a hearing this week with Education Minister Mohammad Abdul Rahman Tarkou over the state of the country's schools and is due to question the energy minister on Thursday over a sharp rise in fuel prices.