{"id":414234,"date":"2026-04-28T03:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/414234\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T03:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:20:16","slug":"treason-is-war-for-external-interests-lebanons-aoun-hits-back-at-hezbollah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/414234\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Treason is war for external interests’: Lebanon\u2019s Aoun hits back at Hezbollah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lebanon\u2019s president sought to normalize fledgling talks with Israel on Monday by rejecting Hezbollah\u2019s claim that engagement with the Israeli side<\/a> is an act of concession.<\/p>\n

According to Lebanon\u2019s National News Agency, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said during a meeting with a delegation from south Lebanon that Lebanon rejects any suggestion that it is making concessions and insisted Israel has no reason for continued military action on Lebanese territory.<\/p>\n

His comments came shortly after Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem described the Lebanon-Israel talks on Monday as a \u201chumiliating and unnecessary concession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aoun appeared to push back against Qassem\u2019s remarks, saying, \u201cI will not accept a humiliating agreement.\u201d Referring to Hezbollah\u2019s attacks on Israel that drew Lebanon into the wider Iran war<\/a> in early March, he asked, \u201cWas there national consensus when you chose war?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aoun said that negotiating with Israel is not treason. \u201cTreason is the one who takes his country to war for external interests,\u201d he said. \u201cMy goal is to reach an end to the war with Israel in accordance with a ceasefire agreement, an agreement that stipulates that Israel will not carry out any offensive military action against Lebanese targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hezbollah rejects disarmament push<\/p>\n

Hezbollah has rejected the negotiations and demands that it disarm. Lebanon\u2019s cabinet tasked the military in August 2025 with bringing all armed groups\u2019 weapons under state control, a move primarily aimed at Hezbollah following its 2024 war with Israel. In September, the cabinet formally endorsed the army\u2019s disarmament plan but did not set a clear timeline.<\/p>\n

While the plan’s first phase, focused on southern Lebanon, has seen progress, the second phase, which involves disarmament nationwide, has largely stalled amid Hezbollah\u2019s continued refusal to cooperate.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet it be known clearly: These direct negotiations and their outcomes are as if they do not exist for us, and they do not concern us in the slightest,” Qassem said in his statement on Monday, adding, \u201cWe will not give up weapons and defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second round of\u00a0talks between Israel and Lebanon<\/a> last Thursday at the White House produced an extension of the ceasefire by three weeks, setting a new expiry date of May 17. US President Donald Trump, who participated in the meeting, called it \u201cvery successful\u201d in a post on Truth Social. He said the United States would work with Lebanon \u201cto help it protect itself from Hezbollah\u201d and added that he looked forward to hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Aoun \u201cin the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House session followed an earlier round of talks at the State Department between Lebanese Ambassador to the United States Nada Hamadeh and her Israeli counterpart, Yechiel Leiter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ceasefire strains as strikes intensify<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the ground, the Israeli military escalated its campaign in Lebanon on Monday, striking southern areas and the eastern Bekaa Valley for the first time since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on April 16.<\/p>\n

Despite the truce, Israel has continued strikes across southern Lebanon, where its forces remain deployed. In a statement in the early hours of Monday, the military said it had destroyed \u201cmore than 50 terror infrastructures\u201d in Lebanon in recent days. Hezbollah has continued drone and rocket fire toward Israeli positions in Lebanon and northern Israel.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the group said it attacked an Israeli position in the south with a drone. The Israeli military said a drone launched by Hezbollah exploded near its troops, but no casualties were reported.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military posted on X that its air force intercepted a \u201chostile aircraft\u201d heading toward areas where its forces are operating in southern Lebanon, adding that it did not cross into Israeli territory and no alerts were triggered, in line with policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lebanon\u2019s president sought to normalize fledgling talks with Israel on Monday by rejecting Hezbollah\u2019s claim that engagement with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-414234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}