Dermer says 'making progress with Lebanon' on political agreement
Former Israeli minister Ron Dermer has confirmed for the first time that he has returned to work for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he has been appointed to lead negotiations with the Lebanese government.
"He asked me to get involved," said the former minister who retired from public life last November.
Among other things, Dermer said he has begun "making progress with Lebanon" toward a political agreement.
"It is possible to talk about a potential peace agreement, but for a deal to be implemented, Hezbollah will need to be disarmed. We will not sacrifice our security," Dermer added.
"The disagreement over the border between us and Lebanon is very small. There are 13 disputed points, seven of which have already been resolved,” Dermer said.
“I had negotiated this previous ceasefire in Lebanon, which, by the way, was very unpopular at the time in the Israeli public, because they wanted to just go in and finish the job,” he said. “But you have to understand, Israel is managing many fronts simultaneously.”
“We still had the big battle in Gaza and also Iran. We still had our hostages,” he said. “There were many reasons why it was the right thing to do.”
He said any future agreement would not allow a return to the pre-Oct. 7 situation.
“We’re not going back to what happened in Israel on Oct. 6, beforehand. We’re not going to allow a threat to emerge on our border,” Dermer said.
Despite the conditions, Dermer expressed optimism that progress is possible.
“I actually think it’s possible to move ahead with Lebanon, because the issues are not that complicated,” he said, adding that Israel has no territorial ambitions there. “We don’t have a territorial claim on Lebanon.”
Source: Naharnet
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