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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Monday that no meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should happen before a security agreement is in place and Israeli attacks stop, sharpening the debate over a possible diplomatic opening between the two countries.
"We must first reach a security agreement and stop the Israeli attacks on us before we raise the issue of a meeting between us," Aoun said, according to a statement from his office.
He stressed that the goal was to ensure Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanon, while noting there was no alternative but to stay on the path of negotiations.
Israeli and Lebanese representatives met twice in Washington last month, the first such contacts in decades, after Iran-backed Hezbollah pulled Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 and triggered heavy Israeli strikes and a ground invasion.
After the first round, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon starting April 17, later extended by three weeks after the second round, while a third round of preparatory talks was expected in the coming days, according to Aoun’s office.
At a second meeting later in April, Trump expressed expectations that Aoun and Netanyahu would join him at the White House within weeks, while the U.S. embassy in Beirut later pushed for such a meeting, describing Lebanon as being at a crossroads and urging swift action.
The planned talks have split opinion inside Lebanon. Hezbollah has rejected direct negotiations and also opposed Beirut’s earlier commitment to disarm it. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem criticized the idea on Monday, saying it would put Lebanon "under tutelage" and calling instead for diplomacy that leads to an end to the war.
“Direct negotiations are a gratuitous concession, without results," he said.
Despite the ceasefire, violence has not fully stopped. Hezbollah said its fighters clashed Monday with Israeli soldiers near Deir Seryan in south Lebanon, inside the Israeli-declared "yellow line," where Lebanese residents have been told not to return.
The Israeli military confirmed the clashes and said two IDF soldiers were moderately injured in a close-quarters encounter and were taken to hospital.
Israeli strikes have killed almost 2,700 people in Lebanon since March 2, with dozens reported even after the ceasefire began.
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