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President Joseph Aoun promised to work to preserve Lebanon\u2019s sovereignty and freedom.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 17 Apr 2026<\/span>17 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has said that the country would no longer be an \u201carena for anyone\u2019s wars\u201d, and that the ceasefire with Israel should lead to work on permanent agreements.<\/p>\n In a televised address to the Lebanese public on Friday, he said that Lebanon was no longer \u201ca pawn in anyone\u2019s game, nor an arena for anyone\u2019s wars, and we never will be again\u201d.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n His speech comes a day after a 10-day ceasefire was announced between Lebanon and Israel, bringing respite from Israeli attacks that began on March 2, after Hezbollah fired at Israel, and have left more than 2,200 dead and more than a million displaced.<\/p>\n Aoun said that they were entering a phase of \u201ctransition from working on a ceasefire to working on permanent agreements that preserve the rights of our people, the unity of our land, and the sovereignty of our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n He expressed gratitude to those who he said helped end the hostilities, naming United States President Donald Trump and \u201call our Arab brothers, foremost among them the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia\u201d.<\/p>\n Aoun promised that any agreement reached would not infringe on the country\u2019s rights or relinquish any of its land, and that the negotiations were not a weakness or a concession.<\/p>\n The ceasefire was announced days after Lebanon and Israel held their first direct talks in decades in Washington, which prompted criticism from the Lebanese population.<\/p>\n \u201cOur objective is clear and declared: to stop Israeli aggression against our land and our people, to obtain Israeli withdrawal, to extend state authority over all its land by its own forces, to ensure the return of prisoners, and to enable our families to return to their homes and villages, in safety, freedom and dignity,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n Israel continues to occupy areas of southern Lebanon despite the truce, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying troops would not withdraw during the ceasefire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n President Joseph Aoun promised to work to preserve Lebanon\u2019s sovereignty and freedom. Published On 17 Apr 202617 Apr 2026 Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has said that the country would no longer be an \u201carena for anyone\u2019s wars\u201d, and that the ceasefire with Israel should lead to work on permanent agreements. In a televised address to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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