Lebanese PM calls for responsibility to exit conflict

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called for all parties to prioritize national interests and assume their responsibilities to achieve a negotiated solution to the conflict with Israel. His remarks came after the announcement of a potential conditional ceasefire.

"It is necessary for all parties to put the interests of Lebanon and its people above any other interest, whether external or partisan, and to assume their responsibilities," Salam stated during a cabinet meeting, seemingly directing his message towards the Lebanese Hezbollah group. He warned that anyone who refuses or delays the process will bear the consequences before history and the Lebanese people, who have endured significant suffering and made immense sacrifices.

Salam urged a unified effort under the state's institutions, believing a peaceful approach would be more effective than a military one, while acknowledging the path would be neither easy nor swift. He outlined the next stage as practical and tangible, involving the deployment of the Lebanese army in pilot zones as a first phase. "This does not mean renouncing our right to a total withdrawal (of Israeli troops from Lebanon), but it brings us closer to it," Salam defended.

The dialogue between Lebanon and Israel in Washington concluded with an announcement of a conditional ceasefire, contingent on the cessation of attacks and Hezbollah's armed presence in southern Lebanon, where pilot zones would be established. However, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem criticized the dialogue initiative and its outcomes, though a final decision has not yet been announced.