Lebanon Refuses Direct Talks with Israel Despite Ceasefire Meeting
According to the International Desk of Webangah News Agency, Lebanon has refuted claims of direct negotiations with Israel following a meeting of the committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire. The Lebanese delegation affirmed its dedication to the principle of not engaging in direct talks with Israel, despite assertions from the Israeli side.
Prior to the meeting at Ras al-Naqoura, the Lebanese presidency appointed Simon Karam, a Lebanese lawyer and former ambassador to the United States, as the head of the Lebanese delegation. The meeting reportedly lasted over three hours, with participants gathered in a single room.
Sources indicated that the initial part of the session included three Lebanese army officers, who had also attended previous meetings, along with representatives from the Israeli army. In the second part of the meeting, the officers left, and Simon Karam, Yuri Resnick, senior director of foreign policy at the Israeli regime’s internal security council, U.S. General Joseph Klarefild, the head of the ceasefire monitoring committee, his French deputy, and the UNIFIL commander remained.
While Israeli media outlets attempted to portray the meeting as part of Lebanon’s normalization efforts with Tel Aviv, Lebanese sources insisted that the Lebanese delegation adhered to its policy of no direct negotiations with the “enemy.” These sources also noted that the presence of a civilian, Simon Karam, in the Lebanese delegation was not unexpected, as U.S. officials had previously indicated that Lebanese authorities agreed to include civilians in the delegation and expand the committee’s scope to include technical matters such as the release of Lebanese prisoners and border demarcation.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut issued a statement after the meeting, stating that the presence of civilians on the committee reflected its commitment to facilitating political and military discussions aimed at achieving lasting security, peace, and stability. The committee’s work would focus on both military and sustainable civilian dialogue.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stated that Beirut is not participating in peace talks with Tel Aviv, and any talk of normalization is contingent upon a comprehensive peace process. In contrast, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the occupying regime, claimed that “the meeting resulted in an agreement to formulate ideas for increasing economic cooperation between Lebanon and Israel after the disarmament of Hezbollah.”
In response to Netanyahu’s claims, a prominent Lebanese source, speaking to Al-Jumhuriya newspaper, condemned these assertions, stating that no direct political or economic negotiations or steps towards normalization with Tel Aviv took place during the committee meeting. The source emphasized that the appointment of a civilian head for the Lebanese delegation does not signify succumbing to Zionist demands, adding that any Lebanese presence in the committee and its meetings remains within the framework of the ceasefire agreement and its mechanisms, and does not extend beyond that.
