MP Jradeh Warns Lebanon’s Government: ’Don’t Bargain With Our Blood’

By Staff, Agencies

The member of Lebanese parliament, MP Elias Jradeh, said the "Israeli" enemy cited nonexistent provisions of the November 2024 agreement as a pretext to resume attacks and carry out massacres against Lebanon.

MP Jradeh sharply criticized the Lebanese state, arguing that any government seeking direct negotiations with an enemy that continues to target its own people “has no right to negotiate if it justifies its massacres against the Lebanese.”

He added that what the occupation failed to secure on the battlefield, it is now attempting to pursue through diplomatic and media channels, as well as by seeking to entangle Lebanon in internal divisions.

Jradeh pointed out that Lebanon had previously been unable to impose a ceasefire or compel an "Israeli" withdrawal, noting that such outcomes are “starting to be achieved today.”

While “the government has the right to negotiate,” he said, it “cannot justify 'Israeli' aggression against Lebanon,” adding that he had “observed this in the positions of the prime minister.”

Jradeh stressed that any negotiations must serve the interests of the Resistance and displaced communities, rather than come at their expense, stating: “We should not go to negotiate over the blood of the Resistance and the displaced, but rather negotiate for them.”

He further noted that the Lebanese people were previously subjected to insults by the former US envoy to Lebanon, without any official response or objection being recorded, referring to Thomas Barrack calling Lebanese journalists "uncivilized" and likening their actions to those of animals.

The latest round of direct Lebanese-"Israeli" negotiations in Washington focused on political and security issues, including mechanisms for an "Israeli" withdrawal from areas occupied in southern Lebanon, as "Israeli" violations of the ceasefire continued.

According to Lebanon's National News Agency [NNA], "Israeli" occupation forces [IOF] opened fire in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, martyring two people and wounding another, despite a significant decline in "Israeli" attacks since Saturday.

Lebanese and "Israeli" delegations held talks at the US State Department, discussing a draft declaration of intent covering political and security issues.

The eight-hour session addressed the mechanism and timeline for the withdrawal of the IOF from remaining positions in southern Lebanon, with talks set to resume Wednesday.

For its part, Hezbollah rejected the negotiations, warning they would not bring favorable outcomes for Lebanon and describing their basis as aimed at "submission and surrender."

 The talks come amid continued "Israeli" violations and the occupation of areas in southern Lebanon.