Lebanon awaits the US to set date for negotiations with Israel, Aoun says
The Lebanese president calls on Tel Aviv to "fully implement" the cease-fire ahead of talks.
by L'Orient Today staff · L'Orient TodayBEIRUT — Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that Lebanon is "now waiting for the United States to set a date for the start of negotiations with Israel," after two unprecedented preparatory sessions overseen by Washington were held in the U.S. capital in recent weeks.
Aoun made these remarks as he received the president of the economic organizations, Mohammad Choucair, accompanied by a delegation. The preparatory meetings between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors, overseen by Washington, resulted in an initial 10-day truce that took effect April 17 and was extended for three weeks following a second round of discussions.
Aoun also called on Israel to "fully implement" the cease-fire before any negotiation. "Israel must finally understand that the only path to security is through negotiations, but it must first fully implement the cease-fire before proceeding to negotiations," he said, stressing that "Israeli aggressions cannot be allowed to continue after the cease-fire is announced."
The president also pushed back against criticism that Lebanon had accepted, through a U.S. statement issued after the tripartite discussions in Washington, to give Israel free rein to continue striking Lebanon. He said the text in question was merely a U.S. State Department press release based on the same wording adopted in November 2024 and accepted by all parties at the time. “It is a statement, not an agreement, as the agreement comes after the negotiations have concluded,” Aoun said. He added that every step he had taken regarding "the negotiations had been coordinated with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, contrary to what is being said in the media."
Aoun said he was doing “everything” possible to resolve the current crisis “far from violence and bloodshed,” adding that "This solution will be achieved through negotiations." "If Israel thinks that, through violations and the destruction of border villages, it can achieve security, it is mistaken, because it has already tried this before and it didn’t produce results."
He also said that "the only thing that can protect the borders is for the Lebanese state, in all its strength, to be present in the entire South up to the international borders," adding that both European and Arab countries support Lebanon’s decision to negotiate, and said there is broad consensus in Lebanon— particularly among residents of the South — on "the need to end the war."
Finally, Aoun said that "the Lebanese file is now on the table of the American president, who gives special importance to Lebanon." "During our phone call, he praised Lebanon and its people in a touching way," he added, saying, "This is an opportunity we must seize today to move our country toward the shore of security and peace."
The office of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri responded to Aoun’s remarks, saying they were “not accurate, to say the least.” “The same applies to the November 2024 agreement as well as the issue of negotiations,” it added, without further details.
For his part, Choucair said Lebanese employers estimate that the country is losing between $150 million and $160 million per day in "direct and indirect losses" as a result of the war that resumed on March 2 between Hezbollah and Israel. He did not detail the methodology behind the estimate. Last week, Bank Audi’s research department put the losses recorded in March at $75 million per day.
Hezbollah entered the regional war on March 2 by launching attacks on Israel following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the U.S.-Israeli offensive against Iran. Israel responded with deadly strikes across Lebanon. Although a cease-fire has been in effect since April 17, both sides have continued to accuse each other of violations. More than 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the war, according to Lebanese authorities, while over one million have been displaced. A study published Wednesday by U.N. agencies and the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture also warned that around 1.2 million people in Lebanon face acute food insecurity as a result of the war.
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