Lebanese President Aoun demands productive talks with Israel — Asharq Al-Awsat
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun asked the United States to postpone the round of talks between Beirut and Tel Aviv scheduled for mid-September until early October. He insists on a specific agenda that would make it possible to achieve real progress rather than hold negotiations merely as a formality.
As Asharq Al-Awsat reports, citing a senior Lebanese source, the reasons for the delay were Israel's unwillingness to respond to Lebanon's demands and military escalation, including the demolition of a tunnel network in the Ali al-Taher area in the south of the country.
Negotiations and the situation in the south
Aoun instructed Lebanon's ambassador to the United States, Nada Moawad, who is to meet her Israeli counterpart in Washington, to seek to strengthen the ceasefire regime and complete the release of Lebanese prisoners.
Lebanese authorities are cautiously assessing reports in Israeli media about a possible withdrawal of troops from some areas of southern Lebanon. The American mediator has not conveyed confirmed information about this to Beirut. Field sources for the publication said that Israeli forces had left the Ali al-Taher ridge area but maintain a presence at Beaufort Castle. According to them, there are no Israeli troops in the village of Kfar Tebnit between Ali al-Taher and the castle.
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Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the withdrawal of troops from southern Lebanon must be preceded by the disarmament of Hezbollah. At the same time, the publication's sources in the south of the country believe that the scale of the Israeli deployment and field operations currently does not indicate preparations for a broader escalation near Nabatieh.
Reconstruction of Nabatieh
After visiting Nabatieh, Aoun called on state institutions to intensify their work to restore the state's presence in the city and other southern areas. According to the source, the president asked to speed up the reconstruction of the damaged government building and the disbursement of the $3 million allocated for it.
He also asked the Ministry of Finance to allocate a plot of land for rebuilding the State Security Service center, which, according to the publication, was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. The president's next visit after Nabatieh is expected to be to the coastal city of Tyre.
