Ammon News - Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said he wants a security deal with Israel as a possible prelude to a peace agreement once it leaves the country's south, and that he is determined to disarm Hezbollah without a confrontation.

In an interview, he said he wants a security agreement with Israel "primarily to end the state of hostility and the deployment of the army on the border. This could be a prelude to a later peace agreement, but we cannot jump directly to a peace agreement".

Additionally, said he wants a new force – from Europe or elsewhere – to avoid a security "vacuum" in the south when UN peacekeepers leave at the end of the year.

"What matters is that there is no vacuum," he said, adding that any new force for Lebanon's south, part of which is occupied by Israel, would be "temporary until the (Lebanese) army can deploy".


AFP