Salam: Israeli escalation is destroying Lebanon… negotiations and a ceasefire are the state’s choice to avert the worst and ensure that the decision of war and peace rests exclusively in its hands

We are facing a scene that breaks the heart of every person of conscience in the world: families displaced time and again, children unable to sleep because of relentless bombardment, mothers searching for their homes amid the rubble, and elderly people clinging to their land despite death and devastation.

And I say to our people in the south: you are not alone. Your pain is the pain of all Lebanon, and the tears of mothers and widows in the southern villages are the responsibility of an entire nation.

Trust that the Lebanese state will spare no effort to secure a ceasefire, achieve Israel’s full withdrawal, secure the release of our prisoners, enable families to return to their homes with dignity and safety, and begin reconstruction.

Everyone, near and far, knows that this war was not our choice but was imposed upon us, and all know how high its cost has become in lives and livelihoods.

Therefore, today we are determined not only to stop this war, but also to fortify our country and protect the future of our children in it, so as to prevent our homeland from once again becoming a mailbox for regional or international messages, or from being used as an open arena for the wars and conflicts of others.

For that reason, with full awareness and responsibility, we have decided to pursue the option best suited to protecting Lebanon and the Lebanese in these circumstances: the option of negotiations.

And I want to speak here with utmost frankness to the Lebanese people:

Are negotiations guaranteed to succeed? Certainly not. But they are the least costly path for our homeland and our people compared with the other options today.

And are negotiations a surrender? Also no. Because the first item on the agenda of the negotiating delegation, which is carrying out its work with a high degree of professionalism, is to achieve a ceasefire. As for the objective we are working to reach through negotiations, and on which there can be absolutely no compromise, it is full withdrawal and the release of prisoners, in a way that allows for the reconstruction of what has been destroyed and the safe and dignified return of people to their land.

This path is not easy and will not be short, but it becomes shorter and we become stronger in it when all efforts unite under the umbrella of the Lebanese state.

That requires abandoning unilateralism and stopping the obstinacy. The state is conducting negotiations today in the name of all Lebanese, and it is only right that they all rally under its banner, so that the decision of war and peace remains a Lebanese national decision, not one held by one party rather than another, and not one made beyond the borders.

On the other hand, Israel must understand that through its scorched-earth policy, collective punishment, and the razing of villages and towns, it will gain neither security nor stability. Rather, it is deepening the divide with the Lebanese—all Lebanese—and leaving new and deep wounds in their collective memory.

Lebanon is today going through one of the hardest ordeals in its modern history. ... But we are confident that we will overcome it when we all unite under the banner of the one state, with one decision and one army.

Long live Lebanon.