Lebanese Defense Minister: Talks With Israel Aimed at Peace, Not Surrender or Trade-Offs

Lebanon’s Defense Minister, Major General Michel Menassa, said on Thursday that his country had entered negotiations for peace, not for surrender or trade-offs. The state-run National News Agency quoted Menassa as saying, during a meeting with Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Sami Abi al-Muna in Verdun: “We discussed the Israeli aggression against our country and the ongoing efforts to stop it. Preserving national unity, rallying around Lebanese legitimacy, and ensuring that arms remain exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese army and official security agencies were our shared priorities. Helping our people overcome this ordeal has been our concern, and rising above narrow calculations in favor of major national objectives will remain our goal.” He added: “If we are heading to negotiations, they are for peace, not for surrender. We are going to negotiate, not to trade off. We want to stop the rivers of blood in honor of the martyrs, and we, as Lebanese, Muslims and Christians, insist on remaining united.” He expressed hope that “this ordeal will end, that this cloud will pass, and that the light of deliverance will rise over Lebanon and its people.” For his part, the Druze spiritual leader stressed “the duty to rally around the state and its legitimate institutions, foremost among them the military establishment, especially under the current circumstances, in support of carrying out its assigned tasks in protecting Lebanon and its sovereignty,” warning against any “attempts to undermine civil peace,” and saying that “a strong Lebanon is a united Lebanon.”