Lebanon is ready to resume negotiations to stop the Israeli escalation

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun announced his country’s full readiness to resume negotiations and discuss the security points necessary to stop the dangerous Israeli escalation.

Today, during his meeting with the ambassadors of Norway, Hilde Haraldstad, Sweden, Jessica Svardström, and Denmark, Christopher Viveke, Aoun said that he “conveyed this position to several countries seeking to put an end to the Israeli attacks.”

Aoun presented, before the three ambassadors, “the current situation in the country in light of the widespread Israeli escalation and the ongoing attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut, the south, and the Bekaa, in which more than 400 people were killed, including women, children, and the elderly,” considering that “such attacks will not achieve what Israel aims for.”

He stressed Lebanon’s position, which was stated in the Council of Ministers’ decision last week, regarding Lebanon’s full and final commitment to the provisions of the Declaration of Cessation of Hostilities agreed upon in November 2024, in a way that preserves peace and stability, in exchange for obligating Israel to stop its attacks on all Lebanese territory.

Aoun stressed that “the government’s decision related to restricting weapons will be implemented according to the plan drawn up by the army leadership whenever security conditions permit it.”

He considered that “attacking the army or its commander in these delicate and dangerous circumstances is an unacceptable, surprising and suspicious position because it contributes to attempts to undermine the authority of the state and question its capabilities and is in harmony, in one way or another, with the goals of those working to plunge Lebanon into the ongoing regional war, bypassing the will of the majority of the Lebanese who are tired of wars and their repercussions and cling to the right of the state alone to make decisions about war and peace.”

The ambassadors of the three countries expressed “their country’s solidarity with Lebanon in this delicate stage it is going through, and their readiness to provide the necessary assistance, especially in terms of relief for the displaced and supporting the state’s efforts in this field.”