Lebanon president says aiming to end hostilities with Israel talks

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Monday that planned talks with Israel aim to end hostilities and the occupation in the south, even as Hezbollah and its supporters rejected the negotiations.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told AFP Monday it was in Aoun’s and Lebanon’s “interest” to withdraw from the talks, however adding that his group also wanted the ceasefire to last.

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.

“It is in the interest of Lebanon, the president of the republic and the government to move away from the path of direct negotiation and return to a national understanding about the best option for Lebanon,” Fadlallah told AFP.

“Perhaps through indirect negotiations, even via the United States of America, we can achieve” Lebanon’s goals, Fadlallah stated.

Aoun said Monday the goal of negotiations was to “stop hostilities, end the Israeli occupation of southern regions and deploy the (Lebanese) army all the way to the internationally recognised southern borders”.

Fadlallah said regional powers including Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have worked to build a US-Iran diplomatic track, which creates “a regional umbrella that can provide a kind of guarantee for Lebanon.

“Going into direct bilateral negotiations, alone, amid deep Lebanese divisions and internal disagreements, constitutes a threat to internal consensus.”

He noted that there was no direct communication with the president, while Hezbollah’s ministers remain in Lebanon’s cabinet.

Aoun’s remarks on Monday came after an address to the nation Friday night, in which he said: “We negotiate for ourselves… we are no longer a pawn in anyone’s game, nor an arena for anyone’s wars, and we never will be again.”

The truce in Lebanon was also one of Iran’s conditions for resuming talks with Washington to extend their separate ceasefire and work out the terms of a lasting peace.

Lebanon is officially at war with Israel and has no diplomatic relations with its southern neighbour.

– Aoun faces backlash –

On the road to Beirut’s international airport, in the southern suburbs where Hezbollah holds sway, AFP images showed fresh graffiti attacking Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Monday, following their endorsement of negotiations.

“Joseph is a traitor, Nawaf is a turncoat,” said one spray-painted sign.

“Dealing with Israel is forbidden… no to normalisation,” another read.

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”.

Hezbollah supporters also heaped scorn on Aoun on social media.

“You’re going to hand over the south after two days of negotiations?” one user posted on X, adding “we won’t let you” sign an agreement.

“After all our sacrifices this guy wants to speak for us?” another user posted on X, with their profile picture showing a picture of Aoun and Salam with the words “they do not represent me”.

Israeli attacks killed nearly 2,300 people and forced over a million to flee their homes, Lebanese authorities said, since Hezbollah pulled the country into the Middle East war last month.

“Any outcome of direct negotiations cannot be imposed on the people who made these sacrifices,” Fadlallah told AFP.

– ‘I am full of hope’ –

Aoun on Monday named former Lebanese ambassador to Washington Simon Karam to head the negotiations with Israel.

In December, Karam became the first Lebanese civilian representative to directly speak with Israeli representatives in decades, as part of a ceasefire monitoring mechanism set up at the end of a previous round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in 2023 and 2024.

“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,” Aoun said.

“I have chosen negotiations, and I am full of hope that we will be able to save Lebanon,” he said.