Lebanese president rules out normalisation with Israel

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has played down the prospects of normalisation with Israel, while stating he hoped for peaceful relations with the country which still occupies parts of southern Lebanon.

Aoun's statement is the first official reaction to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar's statement last week, in which he expressed his country's interest in normalising ties with Lebanon and Syria.

Aoun "distinguished between peace and normalisation", according to a statement shared by the presidency on Friday. 

"Peace is the lack of a state of war, and this is what matters to us in Lebanon at the moment. As for the issue of normalisation, it is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy," the president said in front of a delegation from an Arab think tank.

Lebanon and Syria have technically been at war with Israel since 1948.

A Lebanese official told AFP that Aoun was referring to a return to the 1949 armistice between the two countries, signed after the war which took place a year earlier.

The official said Lebanon "remains committed to the 2002 Arab peace initiative", which states that normalisation would occur with Arab states once Israel withdraws from territories it has occupied since 1967.

Aoun called on Israel to withdraw from five points in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, which it still occupies.

Israel was required to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon under a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah agreed in November.