Lebanon and Israel are expected to hold their eighth round of direct negotiations in Italy at the end of September, Israeli media reported, as the two countries continue talks over security arrangements and the future of Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli i24 news channel reported that the next round of talks was expected to take place in Italy toward the end of September. There has been no official confirmation from Lebanon so far.

The reported meeting comes as Israeli and U.S. officials gave conflicting accounts of the status of discussions over a possible international mechanism to oversee security arrangements in southern Lebanon and verify the disarmament of Hezbollah.

The Israeli news website Walla News, citing Israeli and U.S. officials, reported that Israel and Lebanon have not agreed to establish a body to oversee the Lebanese army’s operations in the pilot areas.

The officials also denied a Reuters report that the two sides had agreed on a future international mechanism that would oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Walla News quoted the officials as saying, however, that negotiations are underway over the mechanism that would be put in place after the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, ends its operations.

Disagreement over proposed international mechanism

Reuters had previously reported that Lebanon and Israel had agreed to nominate Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Indonesia as potential contributors to a proposed mechanism that could involve deploying foreign forces in Lebanon to verify the disarmament of Hezbollah.

According to three sources cited by Reuters, the four countries could potentially help determine the scope of the mechanism, provide personnel to oversee its implementation, contribute troops for monitoring or participate in inspections linked to verifying the disarmament process.

A Lebanese official also told Reuters on Friday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed on a list of countries that could potentially send troops to verify the disarmament, adding that the United States would make the final decision on which countries would participate.

While Israeli and U.S. officials cited by Walla denied that an agreement had already been reached on such a mechanism, they acknowledged that talks over the framework to be used after UNIFIL’s mission ends were continuing.