"It is natural that the first session would not be highly productive, but it paved the way for upcoming sessions that will begin on the 19th of this month," he said, according to information minister Paul Morcos at the end of a cabinet meeting.
Aoun also said reactions to the first round of talks on Wednesday were "positive" and said the direct talks between Israeli and Lebanese civilian representatives, the first in decades, were aimed at avoiding a "second war".
The Lebanese head of state stressed, according to Morcos, "the need for the language of negotiation -- not the language of war -- to prevail", and that there would be no concession over Lebanon's sovereignty.
"There is no other option but negotiation. This is the reality, and this is what history has taught us about wars," he said, according to Morcos.
On Friday, Aoun will receive members of the UN Security Council and US envoy Morgan Ortagus, when he said he would urge them to help talks with Israel succeed.
His comments came as Israeli warplanes carried out multiple strikes across southern Lebanon.
Continued ceasefire violations
The Israeli jets struck the town of Mahrouna in the Tyre district early in the day, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported. Separate strikes hit a building in the town of Jbaa in the Nabatieh governorate, flattening the structure and causing extensive damage across the densely populated neighbourhood surrounding it.
Later in the afternoon, Israeli aircraft bombed a building in Baraashit in the Bint Jbeil district, an hour after issuing a threat to target it. Another strike hit a house in the nearby town of al-Majadel, also following a prior Israeli warning. The agency reported heavy drone activity over al-Majadel in the hour before the strike, and persistent overflights by Israeli aircraft across towns and villages in the Tyre region and the western sector.
The bombardment came a day after Israel and Lebanon sent civilian envoys to a US-chaired committee monitoring their fragile ceasefire. The talks mark the first direct and publicly acknowledged engagement between the two sides in more than 30 years, officials from both countries said.
According to Reuters, the meeting in Naqoura, held on the sidelines of the committee’s monthly military meeting, lasted around three hours and was attended by newly appointed civilian representatives: Lebanon’s former ambassador to Washington, Simon Karam, and National Security Council Deputy Director for Foreign Policy, Uri Resnick.
According to Axios, the meeting focused on economic cooperation, especially on rebuilding areas in southern Lebanon affected by the 2024 war.
The ceasefire agreement on the Israeli war on Lebanon that came into effect on 27 November 2024 was supposed to bring relief.
Hezbollah has honoured its side of the deal. It has ceased retaliatory attacks and, in coordination with the Lebanese army, has withdrawn from the area south of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border, dismantled all the remaining military infrastructure in the south, and allowed the army to take up its former positions near the southern border.
However, Israel has committed thousands of violations, with more than 10,000 reported by UNIFIL and 5,350 cited by Lebanese authorities by late November 2025.
These violations, including repeated strikes, have killed over 330 people and wounded 945.
Following one such strike, Hezbollah confirmed that its de facto military chief, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, was assassinated in an attack on Beirut’s Haret Hreik neighborhood on 23 November, the highest-ranking commander killed since the ceasefire.
The 2024 war saw Israel's airstrikes devastate Lebanon’s infrastructure and target densely populated areas, killing at least 2,720 Lebanese, the majority of whom were civilians. It marked Israel’s sixth invasion of Lebanon since 1978.
Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli occupation forces were required to withdraw from Lebanon by 26 January 2025, fully. However, Israel has ignored this deadline, partially withdrawing troops from some villages while retaining control over five locations in the southern highlands.
The ongoing occupation of these outposts has been widely condemned as a blatant violation of the ceasefire, raising serious doubts about Israel’s commitment to upholding the agreement.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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