{"id":995347,"date":"2026-08-12T03:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T03:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995347\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T03:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T03:49:14","slug":"president-aoun-says-israel-lebanon-talks-progressing-calls-for-full-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995347\/","title":{"rendered":"President Aoun says Israel-Lebanon talks progressing, calls for full withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said negotiations with Israel were progressing<\/a> while reaffirming that Lebanon would not accept a continued Israeli presence on any part of its territory, according to a statement posted to X on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Speaking to a delegation from the Maronite Foundation in the World, Aoun reaffirmed his commitment to \u201crebuild the state, whatever the cost,\u201d despite what he described as opposition from those seeking to prevent its reconstruction.<\/p>\n

Aoun said progress was being made in the ongoing negotiations with Israel, arguing that diplomacy offered a better path forward than a return to destructive war.<\/p>\n

Aoun also said the framework agreement had helped curb the scale of Israeli attacks on Lebanon, which he said had encouraged more Lebanese<\/a> to return to the country for the summer.<\/p>\n

However, the president stressed that securing a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and the return of Lebanese prisoners remained priorities<\/a> in the negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no disagreement among the Lebanese on the goals, from the Israeli withdrawal and the return of the prisoners to the reconstruction of what has been destroyed,\u201d Aoun said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, we will not allow Israel to remain on even a single inch of our land, nor will we allow a single Israeli soldier to remain on our soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aoun also challenged the notion that territory taken by force could only be recovered through force, pointing instead to the ongoing diplomatic process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always hear slogans saying that what is taken by force will only be recovered by force, but the facts on the ground have proven the falsehood of this saying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aoun said residents of southern Lebanon deserved the opportunity to live peacefully on their land rather than face further conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time for the son of the South to rest and settle on his land, rather than allowing wars to continue to be waged in his name for non-Lebanese objectives,\u201d Aoun said.<\/p>\n

Israeli and Lebanese officials most recently met in Rome<\/a> for talks that concluded on August 6, during which representatives discussed Hezbollah\u2019s disarmament, a pilot program for an Israeli withdrawal, and plans for a \u201ccomprehensive peace and security agreement,\u201d according to a US State Department spokesperson.<\/p>\n

The next round of Israel-Lebanon talks is expected to take place in early September, a US official told Saudi state-owned Al-Arabiya English on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Leo Feierberg Better contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said negotiations with Israel were progressing while reaffirming that Lebanon would not accept a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":995348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,233576,382527,62317,13192,50],"class_list":["post-995347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-israel","tag-israel-lebanon-border","tag-israel-lebanon-peace-deal","tag-joseph-aoun","tag-lebanon","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117080501269624110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}