Prime Minister Nawaf Salam emphasized on Friday that any normalization of relations with Israel must be preceded by a just and comprehensive peace, following public backlash over comments he made in a CNN interview.
During the interview, Salam was asked whether normalization could proceed without a clear path to Palestinian statehood. He dismissed the idea of separating normalization from the broader peace process.
“I don’t like this idea of tracks,” he said. “I want to see a two-state solution and an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories in exchange for peace,” adding that “peace will lead to normalization.”
The remarks, mainly the last one, sparked criticism from various quarters, prompting Salam to issue a clarification through his office later in the day.
In a statement, the prime minister reaffirmed his commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative, adopted in Beirut in 2002, which calls for normalization with Israel only after the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“The only acceptable peace is a just and comprehensive peace based on the Arab Peace Initiative, which is built on the two-state solution,” the statement read.
Salam stressed that his position is “clear and does not bear interpretation or alteration,” and reaffirmed Lebanon’s adherence to long-standing Arab principles.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri also weighed in on the controversy. He tried to justify Salam’s declaration, telling An-Nahar newspaper that the prime minister’s remarks on normalization referred to normalization “with the Arabs, not with Israel.”
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