The next round of U.S.-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon has been postponed until October, a U.S. State Department official said, delaying a meeting that had been scheduled to take place in Rome next week.

The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States are still expected to meet at the State Department in Washington next week to discuss recent developments and the continued implementation of a framework agreement reached between the two countries in June, AFP said.

The next formal round of negotiations will instead be held in Rome in October.

The postponement was attributed to scheduling difficulties. A source familiar with preparations told Axios that Jewish holidays, a Paris conference in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces and preparations for the U.N. General Assembly had made it difficult for key participants to convene in Rome as planned. Reuters also reported the same factors behind the delay.

The delay came as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said there were no new negotiations with Israel currently underway, during a visit Saturday to the southern city of Nabatiyeh alongside Army Commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal and the heads of Lebanon’s security agencies.

“There are no new negotiations with Israel at present,” Aoun told reporters.

He reaffirmed Lebanon’s demand for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, the return of prisoners and displaced people to their areas and reconstruction.

“The withdrawal, the return of prisoners and displaced people, and reconstruction are national principles that we pledge to implement,” Aoun said.

The announcement of the postponement came two days after Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that the eighth round of Israel-Lebanon talks would take place Tuesday and Wednesday.

The planned meeting was also overshadowed by a major Israeli military operation in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces carried out large explosions beneath the Ali al-Taher ridge, saying they had destroyed Hezbollah tunnel networks there.

The talks are part of a U.S.-brokered framework agreed in June that calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament, the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in areas vacated by Israeli forces, initially through designated “pilot zones.”

The U.S. official said the framework remained “the only viable mechanism to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty and Israel’s security.”