Nidaa Al-Watan has learned that during the preliminary U.S.-Lebanese-Israeli call last Friday, Lebanon raised several points, foremost among them its insistence on a ceasefire before the launch of negotiations. It is now awaiting Tuesday’s direct meeting to learn Israel’s response to this proposal — a response that will determine the fate of these first-of-their-kind talks.
Official sources told Nidaa Al-Watan that Lebanon is following the Pakistan negotiations because of their repercussions for the situation in the region, noting that the Lebanese state has definitively succeeded in separating the Lebanon file from the Iran file. This issue is sovereign par excellence and there will be no retreat from it, because Lebanon will no longer accept anyone negotiating in its name or on its behalf. The sources stressed that, regardless of the scale of objections, Lebanon will be the only party entrusted with leading these negotiations, while the Lebanese state is doing everything necessary to secure a ceasefire. It has also been established beyond any doubt that Lebanon was not included in the truce agreement between Israel and Iran. Although the Iranians tried to suggest that they had made a truce in Lebanon a condition before entering negotiations, they sat down yesterday at the talks table in Pakistan against the backdrop of the continuing bombardment of Lebanon.
