War in the Middle East: Lebanon working towards a permanent agreement after ceasefire with Israel

In a national address, President Joseph Aoun stated that his country did not want to be “the center of anyone’s wars”.

Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are ongoing. The president stated that Lebanon is working towards “a permanent agreement” with Israel following the ceasefire that came into effect on Friday, April 17.

“We find ourselves in a new phase,” declared Joseph Aoun in his first national address since the truce, referring to “a transitional phase (…) to work on a permanent agreement that safeguards the rights of our people, the unity of our country, and the sovereignty of our nation.”

These direct talks, while Lebanon has been at war with Israel since 1948, are “not a sign of weakness or concession”, emphasized the head of state, promising not to “yield an inch of national territory.”

“We are confident that we will save Lebanon, we have taken Lebanon back and the decision-making power of Lebanon for the first time in almost half a century,” Joseph Aoun further stated, adding that “today, we negotiate for ourselves, we are no longer a pawn in anyone’s game, nor the center of anyone’s wars, and we never will be again.”

Lebanon was drawn into regional war when the Hezbollah, an Islamist movement funded and supported by Tehran, attacked Israel on March 2 in retaliation for the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the American-Israeli offensive against Iran.

In his address, the Lebanese president thanked “all those who contributed to the realization of the ceasefire, starting with my friend, President Donald Trump,” as well as Saudi Arabia.

Since Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam took office last year, Beirut has made several unprecedented decisions against Hezbollah, including a commitment to disarm the Shiite movement, following a ceasefire agreement in November 2024 to end a previous conflict with Israel.

The government also banned Hezbollah’s military activities, the only group to retain its weapons after the 1975-1990 civil war in the name of “resistance” against Israel, despite Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. In a country plagued by deep sectarian and political divisions, the arsenal of the pro-Iranian movement has repeatedly sparked internal crises.