Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaks to journalists working for foreign media and news agencies at the Government Palace in Beirut. AFP
Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since 1948, and despite the new diplomatic contact, Salam said in an interview that "we are not yet at peace talks."
Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks on Wednesday in decades, part of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism in the war on Lebanon.
The meeting was taking place at the UN peacekeeping force's headquarters in Lebanon Naqura near the border with Israel as part of a mechanism to oversee the ceasefire that took hold in November 2024, and which Israel has been systematically violating. The Israeli forces also refuse to withdraw from several locations in south Lebanon as stipulated by the agreement.
He also stated that Lebanon was "open to verification by the mechanism" regarding its efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
Morgan Ortagus, the US special envoy for Lebanon, also attended Wednesday's meeting, the US embassy in Beirut said in a statement. The United States has been piling pressure on Lebanon to rapidly disarm the resistance group.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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