The Druze leader Walid Joumblatt, in Clemenceau, on August 27, 2025. Photo Mohammad Yassine/L’Orient-Le Jour
BEIRUT — Two days after the announcement of a supposed "cease-fire" agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel under U.S. auspices on Wednesday, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said Friday that it is necessary to "define a clear final framework for the negotiations and avoid falling back into joint U.S.-Lebanese statements that bring together contradictory positions."
As Israel continues to bombard southern and occupy more than 600 square kilometers and dozens of completely devastated villages, the document provided for continued discussions among the various parties to establish a "security framework" that must notably ensure "the sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Lebanon and Israel" and in particular includes "the dismantling of unofficial armed groups and the prevention of their reconstitution." The United States also stressed that any cessation of hostilities must be concluded directly between the two states, under U.S. mediation, "and not through a parallel channel," alluding to Hezbollah and Tehran’s desire to see the truce included in a broader agreement between the United States and Iran.
The former leader of the Progressive Socialist Party warned against negotiations conducted "for the sake of negotiating, like the Oslo Accords, which could result in the loss of part of southern Lebanon’s heritage, history and population, as is the case in Palestine," referring to the dividing lines of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In the wake of the cease-fire agreement, Jumblatt said in an interview with L'Orient-Le Jour that there are still "gray areas" that mar this understanding. He also suggested expanding its scope by including Iran in order to ensure the agreement is implemented. At the same time, in the anti-Hezbollah camp, the cessation of hostilities agreed to in Washington has been welcomed, while stressing that it must be accompanied by a rapid and effective disarmament of the Shiite party.
