Lebanon's President said Monday direct negotiations with Israel aimed to end the Israel-Hezbollah war, adding that those who dragged Lebanon to war were the ones committing "treason" -- a jab at Hezbollah, whose leader called the talks a "sin", AFP reports.
Lebanon and Israel's US ambassadors met twice in Washington over the past weeks, the first meetings of their kind in decades, for discussions that were categorically rejected by Hezbollah.
After the first round of talks, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire that came into effect on April 17, later announcing a three-week extension after the second round of talks.
"My goal is to reach an end to the state of war with Israel, similar to the armistice agreement" of 1949, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement Monday.
Lebanon and Israel, officially at war for decades, signed an armistice agreement ending combat between the two states in 1949, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
"Was the armistice agreement a humiliation? I assure you that I will not accept reaching a humiliating agreement."
Aoun's statement came shortly after Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem sharply criticised the government, issuing a statement describing direct negotiations with Israel as a "grave sin".
"We categorically reject direct negotiations with Israel, and those in power should know that their actions will not benefit Lebanon or themselves," Qassem said in a statement, aired by the group's TV channel Al-Manar.
He called on authorities to "back down from their grave sin that is putting Lebanon in a spiral of instability".
He added that the Lebanese government "cannot continue while it is neglecting Lebanon's rights, giving up land, and confronting its resistant people".
"We will not give up our weapons... and the Israeli enemy will not remain on a single inch of our occupied land."
