President Joseph Aoun during an interview with AFP at the presidential palace in Baabda, on Sept. 15, 2026. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
BEIRUT — President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that Lebanon wants to reach a "security agreement" with Israel, while also calling on the country's international partners to prevent a "security vacuum" from developing in southern Lebanon if UNIFIL were to leave.
Ahead of the international conference in Paris dedicated to supporting the Lebanese armed forces, scheduled for this week, the head of state called, in an interview with AFP, for "European countries, the United States, and Arab states to help the Lebanese Army," to enable it to reinforce its deployment and authority across all of the country's territory.
'Prelude to peace'
"The main thing is that there is no vacuum," he said ahead of his departure for the French capital, adding that the new force to be deployed in southern Lebanon, part of which is occupied by Israel, would be "temporary, until the army is able to deploy."
Aoun also said that a "security agreement with Israel could be a prelude to peace" between the two countries, while the implementation of the "framework agreement" signed on June 26 between Beirut and Tel Aviv is stalling. Scheduled talks in Rome have been postponed in light of the international conference and the recent upsurge in Israeli shelling and demolitions in southern Lebanon.
The president also reiterated in this interview that the state is "determined" to disarm Hezbollah, while avoiding a "confrontation" with Hezbollah in order to achieve this goal.
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