Lebanon President Says Israel Talks Aim to End Hostilities, Occupation

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Monday that planned talks with Israel aim to end hostilities and the Israeli occupation in the south, as he named an ex-ambassador to the United States to lead the delegation. “The choice to negotiate aims to stop hostilities, end the Israeli occupation of southern regions and deploy the (Lebanese) army all the way to the internationally recognized southern borders” with Israel, Aoun said in a statement. A 10-day ceasefire pausing more than six weeks of war between Hezbollah and Israel started on Friday after being announced by US President Donald Trump. More than 2,300 people have been killed in Israeli attacks and over a million displaced since Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the Middle East conflict last month. Aoun named former Lebanese ambassador to Washington Simon Karam to head the negotiations with Israel, and said “no one will share this task with Lebanon or take its place”. Iran-backed Hezbollah is not part of the talks and its supporters strongly oppose bilateral Lebanon-Israel negotiations. Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qamati blasted Aoun on Saturday, saying “defeated, you go to the Israelis and Americans, let’s see what you will get out of it”. The truce in Lebanon was one of Iran’s conditions for resuming talks with Washington to extend their separate ceasefire and work out the terms of a lasting peace. But Aoun said Monday that the Israel-Lebanon talks will be “separate from any other negotiations”, in an implicit reference to the US-Iran diplomacy. “Lebanon is facing two options: either the continuation of the war, with all its humanitarian, social, economic, and sovereign repercussions, or negotiations to put an end to this war and achieve lasting stability,” he said. “I have chosen negotiations, and I am full of hope that we will be able to save Lebanon.”