Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora on Wednesday said he refused to have any direct contact with Israel, and that Lebanon would be the last Arab country to ever sign a peace deal with Israel. | “Let it be clear, we are not seeking any agreement until there is just and comprehensive peace based on the Arab initiative...” |
"Let it be clear, we are not seeking any agreement until there is just and comprehensive peace based on the Arab initiative," he said.
He was referring to a plan that came out of a 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut. It calls for Israel to return all territories it conquered in the 1967 Mideast war, the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem - all in exchange for peace and full normalisation of Arab relations with Israel. Israel has long sought a peace deal with Lebanon, but Beirut has hesitated as long as Israel's conflicts with the Palestinians and Syria remained unresolved. Saniora said Lebanon wants to go back to the 1949 armistice agreement that formally ended the Arab-Israeli war over Israel's creation. |