Lebanon PM to Asharq Al-Awsat: No Other Path Except Ceasefire, Negotiations

 Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot in Beirut on September 30, 2024. (AFP)
Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot in Beirut on September 30, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon PM to Asharq Al-Awsat: No Other Path Except Ceasefire, Negotiations

 Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot in Beirut on September 30, 2024. (AFP)
Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot in Beirut on September 30, 2024. (AFP)

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed on Monday that his country is committed to a reaching a ceasefire and launching indirect negotiations that would end the fierce Israeli war on Lebanon and its people.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat after meeting with visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and later holding talks with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, he said: “Lebanon vows to send the army to the South after a ceasefire and the launch of negotiations.”

“We have no other substitute to this call that was issued by ten influential countries, led by the United States and France,” he added.

“It is now on the international community. The credibility of these countries, especially the US, is now on the line, because if they can’t stop this barbaric war, then I don’t believe anyone can,” Mikati said.

Moreover, he remarked that his comments after meeting Berri reflect the “unity of the Lebanese position,” saying he used the word “vow” to underscore the strength of this stance.

“This is the only path forward and there can be no substitute for it except the continuation of the war, whose end no one can predict,” he went on to say.



Series of Israeli Airstrikes Hit Central Beirut, At Least 1 Building Destroyed

Rescue workers and people search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit central Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Rescue workers and people search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit central Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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Series of Israeli Airstrikes Hit Central Beirut, At Least 1 Building Destroyed

Rescue workers and people search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit central Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Rescue workers and people search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit central Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Powerful Israeli airstrikes targeted central Beirut on Saturday, resulting in a large number of fatalities and injuries and destroying an eight-story building, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Footage broadcast by TV stations showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it in the Basta neighborhood.

At least 11 people were killed and dozens injured. Lebanon's civil defense said the death toll was provisional as emergency responders were still digging through the rubble looking for survivors. 

Israel used bunker buster bombs in the strike, leaving a deep crater, said NNA. Beirut smelled strongly of explosives hours after the attack.
The blasts shook the capital around 4 a.m.

NNA said at least five bombs were dropped in the attack.
It marked the fourth Israeli airstrike this week targeting a central area of Beirut, where the bulk of Israel's attacks have targeted the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs.

On Sunday an Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah's media relations chief Mohammad Afif in the Ras al-Nabaa district of central Beirut.

The Israeli military did not issue a warning for Basta's residents to evacuate prior to the strike and did not immediately issue a statement on it.

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs.

Meanwhile, heavy ground fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants was ongoing in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops have pushed farther from the border.