In an interview with FRANCE 24 in Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam discussed the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, amid the ongoing war in the Middle East. “This war was imposed upon us,” the Lebanese leader said, adding that Lebanon “could have avoided it” had Hezbollah not fired rockets in retaliation for the US-Israeli assassination of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel responded to Hezbollah‘s March 2 rocket fire with intense air strikes and has sent ground troops into south Lebanon, where it wants to take control of a zone up to the Litani River, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border.
Salam called this “buffer zone” that Israel want to establish in southern Lebanon “completely unacceptable”, stating that it constitutes a “flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty” and of “Lebanon’s territorial integrity”.
Asked about possible negotiations with Israel that were recently mentioned by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Salam stated that these were still “on the table” and that Lebanon remained “in favour of negotiations with Israel to put an end to this war”.
Since March 2, more than 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million have been forced to flee their homes.
