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Lebanon will not normalize relations with Israel at the moment, President Joseph Aoun stated on Friday, underlining that the immediate goal of Beirut is to reach a “state of no war” with the country to its south. His words come as the United States, led by President Donald Trump, boosts efforts to extend the Abraham Accords a diplomatic achievement in 2020 during which Israel has established official relations with the UAE and Bahrain.
President Aoun’s statement, issued by his office, comes as heightened regional interest in de-escalation follows. Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa earlier this month admitted to indirect negotiations with Israel to avoid further military escalation along their common border. This comes after the removal of erstwhile Syrian President Bashar Assad in December, which has altered diplomatic equations in the region.
Although Lebanon is technically still at war with Israel since 1948, Aoun explained that peace in the sense of a state of non-conflict is now the country’s most realistic aspiration. He also reaffirmed that Lebanon’s ultimate aspiration is for the state itself to be the owner of weapons, in what seemed to be a direct reference to Hezbollah.
The influential Iran-backed militia has dominated Lebanon-Israel tensions for decades. While Hezbollah says it has pulled its militia out of the Israeli border, it still holds a strong arsenal elsewhere in Lebanon. The group insists it will not disarm until Israel stops almost-daily airstrikes and vacates five disputed border areas.
Aoun made the comments as US envoy Tom Barrack visited Beirut and voiced satisfaction with the Lebanese reaction to offers to demilitarize Hezbollah. Disarming the group is, however, a deeply controversial subject in Lebanese politics.
Hezbollah has engaged in two significant wars with Israel the war of 2006 and a more recent 14-month war that broke out after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. That war ended in a US-mediated ceasefire in November 2024, but not before killing more than 4,000 in Lebanon and inflicting an estimated $11 billion worth of damage. Israel suffered 127 deaths, 80 of them military.
Peace is not war, and that is what is important for Lebanon now,” Aoun said. He asserted that normalization with Israel is “not on the agenda of Lebanon’s foreign policy right now.
