Nawaf Salam, Lebanon’s prime minister, said on Wednesday during a visit to a village in the south of the country where the Lebanese army has recently been deployed that Beirut is working toward the “complete exit of Israel” from its occupied areas.

He said, in one of several “test areas” in which the Lebanese army is expected to demonstrate its strength in disarming Hezbollah, “We will continue to mobilize our political and diplomatic efforts to ensure the complete exit of Israel from the south.”

This move is part of a U.S.-mediated agreement under which Lebanon and Israel have begun direct talks, and the Lebanese army must disarm Hezbollah, the group supported by the Islamic Republic.