A statement issued by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Gebran Bassil on the issue of negotiations with Israel.
The Free Patriotic Movement fully supports the principle of negotiating with Israel to stop the war, restore its rights, and establish peace. However, the process of direct negotiations is a tactical card that can be used at the appropriate time to achieve its purpose. It must not be squandered or used prematurely under the pressure of Israeli aggression, without securing a ceasefire, and on the basis of offering free concessions in a surrenderist and defeatist sequence.
Negotiations are justified if they serve to achieve the following objectives:
1 – A complete halt to Israeli attacks by land, sea, and air.
2 – A full Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Lebanese territories within internationally recognized borders, including the maritime demarcation agreement.
3 – The immediate return of Lebanese citizens to their towns and homes without any condition or restriction.
4 – The deployment of the army along all borders and across the entirety of Lebanese territory, and equipping it as necessary within a national defense strategy, along with the immediate implementation of the principle of exclusively placing arms in its hands and in no one else’s, and confining state decision-making to its constitutional institutions alone.
5 – Holding Israel responsible for the damage resulting from the aggression and demanding compensation for it.
6 – Achieving the principle of the Lebanese state’s absolute sovereignty over its land, airspace, and sea, and over all its rights to its national natural resources and their full exploitation.
7 – Affirming the principle of establishing a permanent, comprehensive, and just peace with Israel within the framework of the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut (2002), and on the basis of the United Nations as the reference point in all its resolutions, in a manner that guarantees the non-settlement of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, within the framework of an integrated Arab process and solution that also ensures the return of Syrian displaced persons to their country.
