Despite Speaker Nabih Berri’s objection to direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, he avoids addressing this position through the media, preferring to express it through specific channels.
In response to a question from Al Joumhouria, he explained: “Who said we are against negotiations? We are certainly in favor of indirect negotiations, and we have had many experiences in the past. I personally conducted long rounds of indirect negotiations with a large number of American envoys, the latest of whom was Amos Hochstein on the issue of maritime border demarcation, and we reached an agreement during them. The same applies to the disputed points along the Blue Line, where we managed to settle most of them, with only five or six points remaining. Likewise, during the period of preparing Resolution 1701 with David Welch, and we also have the ‘mechanism’ as a framework for negotiations.”
When asked whether he expected results from the direct negotiations, he declined to comment. Regarding the 10-day truce, Berri repeated his call for displaced residents not to rush back to their homes, because he does not trust Israeli treachery at all. As for the “yellow line” announced by Israel in the southern region, he stressed: “There are no yellow lines, no red lines, no green lines, and no lines of any color. No lines concern us, and we cannot accept that in any way. The Israeli withdrawal from the southern areas into which it has advanced and where it seeks to entrench its occupation must take place. If it maintains its occupation, whether of areas or positions or through zero lines it draws, that means it will smell the resistance every day.”
He continued: “This is Lebanese land, and Lebanon cannot tolerate losing even one meter of it. If they insist on staying, they will be met with resistance, and our history bears witness to that. We did not start this in the first place, nor did we resist for nothing. Rather, it was their occupation and their attacks that imposed resistance on us and forced us to resist in order to liberate our land and preserve our country’s sovereignty. Nothing has changed for us. We remain firmly in this position until the occupation ends and is driven from our land.”
Al Joumhouria
