Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that his government will seek “permanent agreements” with Israel a day after President Donald Trump invited him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House for talks.
In a televised address, Joseph Aoun said, “We all stand before a new stage. It is the stage of transition from working to halt the gunfire to working on permanent agreements that preserve the rights of our people, the unity of our land and the sovereignty of our homeland.”
He stressed that talks with Israel would not entail concessions on core issues, saying, “Negotiations do not mean and will never mean the forfeiture of any right, nor the abandonment of any principle, nor an infringement on the sovereignty of this homeland.”
His remarks come just a day after Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon after more than a month of Israeli bombardment across Lebanon, which killed more than 2,100 people, and Hezbollah rocket fire into Israel that has killed 14 people. The Israeli military has also occupied southern Lebanon as far as the Litani River, roughly 12-18 miles (15-19 kilometers) from the border.
Aoun said that Lebanon’s goals in negotiations are: “halting the Israeli aggression on our land and people, Israeli withdrawal, extending the authority of the state over its entire territory through its own forces exclusively and the return of the prisoners and the return of our people to their homes and villages.”
He also appeared to distance his government further from Iran, saying, “We are no longer a card in anyone’s pocket, nor a field for anyone’s wars.”
Following his ceasefire announcement, Trump invited both Aoun and Netanyahu to the White House for what would be the first high-level talks between the two sides in decades. While Aoun did not formally accept the invitation in his speech, he said he is “ready to go wherever it may be to liberate my land, protect my people and save my country.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump said the two leaders would be “probably coming to the White House over the next four or five days.”