Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for negotiations with Israel on Monday, after US President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire in Gaza.
In October 2023, Iran-backed Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel in support of Hamas in the Gaza war.
Months of hostilities escalated into all-out war in September 2024, before a ceasefire was agreed two months later.
Israel has continued to strike Lebanon, saying it is hitting Hezbollah targets, but according to the United Nations over 100 civilians have been killed since the truce.
“The Lebanese state has previously negotiated with Israel under American and United Nations auspices, resulting in an agreement to demarcate the maritime border… so what prevents the same thing from happening again to find solutions to the outstanding issues,” Aoun said according to a presidency statement.
“Today, the general atmosphere is one of compromise, and it is necessary to negotiate,” he added, specifying that “the form of this negotiation will be determined in due time”.
The US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Friday.
There are no formal ties between Israel and Lebanon.
“We cannot be outside the current path in the region, which is the path of crisis resolution,” Aoun said, stating it was “no longer possible to tolerate more war, destruction, killing, and displacement”.
– ‘Bloody messages’ –
The United States began efforts to help demarcate the land border between Lebanon and Israel in 2023, after sponsoring an agreement on the maritime border between the two countries in 2022.
However, the violence between Hezbollah and Israel froze those efforts.
The current demarcation line between the two countries, drawn by the United Nations in 2000, includes 13 disputed points.
Israel also kept its troops deployed in five border points it considered strategic after its war with Hezbollah.
In a speech to the United Nations in September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “peace between Israel and Lebanon is possible”, calling on Beirut to “begin direct negotiations” with his country.
Under US and Israeli pressure, Lebanon’s government is seeking to disarm Hezbollah, and the Lebanese army has drawn up a plan to do so beginning in the country’s south.
Aoun said “Israel continues to send military and bloody messages to pressure us”, hoping to reach a time now when “Israel commits to halting military operations against Lebanon and the negotiating process begins”.
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© Agence France-Presse
