President Joseph Aoun to the delegation of the “Democratic Encounter”:
– The positions that enjoy national rationality will serve to achieve the necessary alignment with the course of negotiations that will begin after the confirmation of the ceasefire, and it is important for the Lebanese to engage with the unity of the national position to strengthen the Lebanese negotiating team in the face of the Israeli negotiating delegation so that it does not exploit any internal breach to achieve its goals.
– Lebanon’s Ambassador to Washington, Nada Hamadeh Muawad, will represent Lebanon at the preparatory meeting scheduled tomorrow at the U.S. State Department to raise the issue of extending the deadline of the ceasefire agreement and halting Israel’s demolition operations in the southern villages and towns.
– Lebanon’s direction in the anticipated negotiations is clear: no concessions, no bargaining, and no surrender except for what achieves Lebanese sovereignty and the interests of all Lebanese.
– We adopted the option of negotiation because past experiences taught us that wars lead only to killing, destruction, and displacement, and I knew that there would be those who would object, doubt, and level accusations, but I am confident that this option is the safest for Lebanon and the Lebanese, regardless of their affiliations.
– I am in constant communication with Presidents Nabih Berri and Nawaf Salam, former MP Walid Jumblatt, and several Lebanese leaders to follow up on the contacts I am conducting to confirm the ceasefire and provide the appropriate atmosphere that protects Lebanon’s option, because the current stage requires realism, wisdom, rationality, and an understanding of the Lebanese reality, and all must embrace this direction to contribute to ending Lebanon’s suffering in general and its south in particular, whose land has witnessed wars since 1969 until today that have produced tragedies and torments whose repercussions we still face to this day.
– The majority of political forces are aware of the delicacy of the stage and stand firmly against sedition and everything that harms civil peace in the country.
– The measures taken by the military and security forces are important and fundamental, but national awareness also has its active role in warding off sedition and confronting those who attempt to awaken it.
– The state is embracing the file of the displaced and working to return them to their towns and villages according to security conditions, just as the state supports the southerners who held firm in their villages and clung to their land, and communication is ongoing with them to provide the means of steadfastness.
– The responsibility is shared because we are all in one ship and we must steer it to the shore of safety, and this is a comprehensive national task and not the responsibility of one individual, even if he is the president of the republic.
: Lebanese Presidency