Amin Gemayel, the former Lebanese president who once negotiated a peace agreement with Israel that quickly unraveled, said Lebanon should try again as the two sides hold renewed direct talks and explore what could lead to a security agreement. Gemayel, who rarely speaks to international media, made the case in an interview with The Associated Press from Bikfaya, Lebanon, speaking after the first direct talks between Lebanon and Israel since the 1980s began.
Gemayel said that while the political landscape has shifted, Lebanon’s leaders still face a central choice about how far negotiations should go. He argued that a deal could begin with an armistice rather than requiring full normalization of relations, saying the country should aim to secure long-term peace, security and stability while maintaining Lebanon’s unity.
In describing the moment for negotiations, Gemayel said the current talks follow angry protests in Washington linked to the Israeli military invasion of southern Lebanon and to the aftermath of heavy bombardment in parts of Beirut earlier this month. He said the ceasefire is fragile and that tensions remain complicated, even as officials pursue negotiations in parallel with a broader regional conflict.
Gemayel said the outlook for talks has changed in part because Hezbollah, which opposes direct talks with Israel, has been weakened in recent years. He also said he supports Hezbollah’s disarmament, pointing to Israel’s strikes in Lebanon over the past two years and to changes in the region that he said have limited routes used to transport weapons. Hezbollah’s opposition to talks remains rooted, Gemayel said, in its belief that Lebanon should support Iran in negotiations with the United States.
On the political model for what negotiations could produce, Gemayel pointed to the stance of Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, who has said Lebanon is seeking a deal similar to the 1949 agreement rather than full normalization. Gemayel said Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam entered direct talks with Israel in order to pursue withdrawal of Israeli troops and bring long-term calm, with both support and criticism emerging inside Lebanon’s deeply divided political system.
Gemayel also described how his own experience with peace efforts shapes his view of what could work this time. In 1982, at age 40, he became Lebanon’s youngest-ever president amid a devastating 15-year civil war, with Syrian and Israeli troops present. He said he decided to pursue U.S.-brokered direct talks with Israel and reached an agreement in May 1983 that included ending the state of war that had existed between the countries since Israel’s founding in 1948, with Israeli troops withdrawing from southern Lebanon and Lebanese forces deploying there.
Despite backing from then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan and a Lebanese parliament vote in favor, Gemayel said the 1983 agreement never went into effect. He blamed Syria and its allies in Lebanon for skepticism toward any talks with Israel, and he also said Israel tried to add an article requiring simultaneous withdrawal alongside the Syrian army in Lebanon. Gemayel said that approach gave Syria a veto and created a public atmosphere of doubt involving then-Syrian President Hafez Assad and his circle.
He said that unlike during his presidency, conditions now provide more openness in the region for negotiations, pointing to Syria’s direct talks with Israel as well as diplomatic agreements that followed the Abraham Accords, including ties established by a handful of Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates. Gemayel said he believes leaders should pursue a long-term peace deal and argued that even a limited agreement could help bring calm if it keeps the country together.
During the latest Israel-Hezbollah fighting, which began two days after U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, Gemayel said more than 2,500 people in Lebanon have been killed and more than one million displaced. He said Israeli troops remain in large swaths of southern Lebanon and continue clashes with Hezbollah fighters even as a truce is nominally in place, with both sides accusing the other of violating the ceasefire. He also said Lebanese public opinion has been divided, with many critical of Hezbollah’s decision to launch rockets into Israel on March 2 while others have been horrified by Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion.
“In my time, discussing a peace agreement with Israel was an unforgivable fatal crime,” Gemayel said. Now, he said he believes that there is more space for diplomacy and that leaders should go “as far as they go” in negotiations while preserving Lebanon’s interests and unity.