Aoun, Salam to send team to Cyprus for possible talks with Israel

President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have begun forming the Lebanese delegation for direct negotiations with Israel, a Western diplomatic source revealed to Al-Jadeed TV.

The delegation will include a Shiite figure who does not represent Hezbollah and the Amal Movement but who also does not provoke them, the report said.

The source did not rule out that the tripartite call on Wednesday evening between the French, Lebanese and Syrian presidents was related to this development, in light of information indicating that French President Emmanuel Macron, in coordination with major countries, is contributing to the idea of ​​direct negotiations proposed by Aoun, which "may take place simultaneously with direct negotiations on the Syrian-Israeli track."

Al-Jadeed later reported that "Lebanon is preparing to negotiate, without any official confirmation from Israel, through Cyprus, and it is expecting a response in the coming hours."

"The Lebanese team that will be sent to Cyprus to prepare for the possibility of negotiations with Israel comprises Paul Salem, Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Abdel Sattar Issa and a Druze figure who could be Halim Abou Fakhreddine or Shawki Abou Nasr," Al-Jadeed said.

"Speaker Berri has refused that the delegation include a Shiite figure, based on his insistence on the Mechanism committee as a mechanism for negotiations pending a ceasefire," it added.