Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Baabda, on Jan. 29, 2025. (Credit: X/lebanesepresidency)
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's press office strongly denounced Friday the broadcast of "truncated" excerpts from the interview given by the prime minister to CNN, during which he stated that the normalization of relations with Israel "is part of the peace we hope to see tomorrow."
"In response to the intentionally truncated excerpts from the interview Salam gave to CNN, which are circulating on some social networks, the prime minister's office calls for watching the full interview, without isolating passages or putting them in erroneous contexts."
His office took the opportunity to note that "the only acceptable peace is a just and comprehensive peace, based on the Arab Peace Initiative adopted in Beirut, which relies on the two-state solution."
"Salam's positions are clear and leave no room for interpretation or distortion," it added. "Lebanon is committed to respecting Arab constants, and normalization can only come after the creation of a Palestinian state."
The Beirut summit in 2002 led to the adoption of the Arab Peace Initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia. This plan offered Israel comprehensive peace and normalization of relations with Arab countries, in exchange for the withdrawal from territories occupied since 1967 – the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Syrian Golan – the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.
Asked two days ago by CNN journalist Becky Anderson about the conditions under which he would consider a possible recognition of Israel, Salam stated, "Lebanon is committed to the Arab peace plan adopted at the Beirut summit, and we remain attached to this initiative ... We are committed to peace, but a peace based on the two-state solution."
"I know that Benjamin Netanyahu opposes this two-state solution, but that will not change the Arab position," he said. "Normalization is the result of peace, and peace can only be based on this famous equation 'land for peace.' I would like to see a two-state solution, with Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories in exchange for peace. And peace will lead to normalization. Normalization is an integral part of the peace we hope to see tomorrow."
About 10 days ago, President Joseph Aoun stated at a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart, during an official visit to Cairo, that Lebanon wanted to revert to the 1949 Armistice Agreement with Israel, after months of war and while a cease-fire agreement between the two countries is almost daily violated. The 1949 Armistice Agreement was a cease-fire negotiated by the United Nations between Lebanon and Israel following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Signed on March 23, 1949, the agreement established a demarcation line between the two countries, ending hostilities and laying the foundation for maintaining peace through the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).