Two Lebanese nuns return to Lebanon from the Israeli border town of Metula on December 12, 1999, during the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon. Archive photo Atef Safadi/AFP
BEIRUT — President Joseph Aoun said Monday that Lebanon will begin talks with Israel, led by former ambassador to Washington Simon Karam, as a fragile 10-day cease-fire holds after weeks of fighting with Hezbollah.
Karam had previously been tasked with talks with Israel under the cease-fire monitoring ‘Mechanism’ set up in November 2024.
Emphasizing that “no other party will participate in this mission or substitute for Lebanon,” Aoun said the upcoming negotiations will be “separate from any other process.” He also said Lebanon faces a clear choice: either continuing the war, with its humanitarian, social, economic and sovereign consequences, or negotiating to end it and establish lasting stability. '
“I choose negotiation,” he said, expressing hope to “save Lebanon.”
The president added that this option aims to “end hostilities, secure the Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas in South Lebanon, and allow the deployment of the Lebanese army up to the internationally recognized southern borders.” He asserted that contacts will continue to maintain the cease-fire and to begin a negotiation process that should receive the broadest possible national support in order for the Lebanese delegation to achieve its goals.
‘Sovereignty Front’ expresses support for Aoun
These remarks were made during a meeting with Lebanese Forces (LF) MP Georges Okais, alongside members of the “Sovereignty Front,” a group of anti-Hezbollah parliamentarians including Ashraf Rifi and Camille Chamoun, who expressed their support for President Aoun from the Baabda Presidential Palace and praised his speech given Friday night, the day the -day cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect in Lebanon.
After his meeting with the head of state, Okais said on behalf of the group that this speech — marked by the president’s commitment to direct negotiations with Israel to “save the country” and shield it from any foreign influence — “amounts to a new inaugural speech.”
He added that this message underscored the need for the state to “regain its right to negotiate and decide the fate of its people by asserting its sovereignty over its territory and strategic decisions, without sharing them with anyone.”
Faced with his firm stance, President Aoun is being attacked and criticized by the Hezbollah camp, which accuses him of submitting to American and Israeli diktats. The MP also said he supports all of the president’s approaches, decisions and directions, “in solidarity with the government, its chief Nawaf Salam and the ministers,” standing with him against intimidation campaigns, accusations of treason and threats. He reiterated his support for the president’s orientation toward negotiations, saying the objective is to end “the use of Lebanon as a theater for regional conflicts.”
Okais also stressed that “the heart of the crisis in Lebanon lies in Hezbollah’s weapons,” which, he said, obstruct the building of the state and prevent it from having the exclusive right to decide on war and peace. He insisted that “the choice is clear: either a state with a single army and a single power of decision, or the continuation of chaos and wars.” For him, the priority remains “to consolidate the cease-fire and make it sustainable.”
Before his meeting with the MPs from the so-called “sovereigntist” camp, Aoun had received at Baabda the American ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, who had just returned from Washington where he attended last week’s preparatory negotiations meeting.
Issa also met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and was scheduled to later meet Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. According to Baabda, Aoun and Issa discussed the outcome of the Washington meeting and “ways to preserve the cease-fire.”
Rajji: ‘Lebanon was dragged into a war it did not choose’
For his part, Lebanese Foreign Minister Joe Rajji, a government minister sponsored by the LF, told his Australian counterpart Penny Wong in a phone call that “Lebanon was dragged into a war it did not choose” and that the government continues its efforts to “regain the decision over war and peace and assert its sovereignty over all of its territory.”
After discussing the latest developments in Lebanon, including the negotiation process with Israel, Wong expressed her country’s full support for Lebanon’s efforts to extend its authority over all its territory, stressing “the importance of restoring stability and security” and saying she was ready to provide the necessary humanitarian aid.
Berry, for his part, mentioned an "American initiative aimed at extending the cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel." In remarks given to the daily newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, he declined to comment on the issue of direct negotiations.
Qaani: Minimum requirement for Lebanon is a return to pre-war lines
