This evening, President of the Republic General Joseph Aoun addressed the Lebanese people following the entry into force of the ceasefire with Israel, thanking all those who contributed to achieving this goal, including brotherly and friendly countries, U.S. President Donald Trump, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and other states.
The full text of President Aoun’s address is as follows:
My fellow citizens, my family, and my brothers and sisters, today, I speak to you from a position of responsibility, and from the heart of the pain that we are all living through, not with passing words, but with a sincere message that carries the burden of the nation and the suffering of its people. What has been achieved in terms of a ceasefire is the outcome of everyone’s efforts. It is the fruit of the sacrifices you made, which awakened the conscience of the world. It is also the fruit of those who stood firm in their homes and villages on the front lines of fire, and who affirmed the world that we are staying here and that we will not leave, no matter what happens. It is the fruit of the efforts of everyone who hosted or embraced his brother in our homeland.
And it is the fruit of enormous efforts made by all Lebanese officials, together with all our brothers and all of Lebanon’s friends around the world. These were efforts that joined days to nights of communication, in every direction and at every level. We neither calmed down, nor grew tired, nor doubted for a single moment our rights and our duty. For that, we endured a great deal. We endured accusations, insults, slander, and falsehoods, and we did not retreat until it became clear that we were right, and until the whole world became convinced that what we did was the most beneficial and the most correct course.
Here, I extend my thanks and gratitude to everyone who contributed to achieving the ceasefire, beginning with the American President and friend Donald Trump, and extending to all our Arab brothers, foremost among them the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We rely on the friendship of all of them to complete what we began yesterday and to accomplish what we aspire to.
Now, however, we all stand before a new phase. It is the phase of moving from work on a ceasefire to working on permanent agreements that preserve the rights of our people, the unity of our land, and the sovereignty of our nation. In this phase, as in the one that preceded it, we are confident that we will save Lebanon, and at the same time we are confident that we will be exposed to every kind of attack for one simple reason: we have restored Lebanon and Lebanon’s decision for the first time in nearly half a century. Today, we negotiate for ourselves, and we decide for ourselves. We are no longer a card in anyone’s pocket, nor an arena for anyone’s wars, and we will never be so again. Rather, we have once again become a state that alone possesses its own decision, raises it high, and embodies it in word and deed for the sake of the life of its people and the good of its sons and daughters alone.
I say to you with complete frankness and confidence: these negotiations are not weaknesses, not retreat, and not concession. Rather, they are a decision born of the strength of our faith in our right, of our concern for our people, and of our responsibility to protect our homeland by every means, especially through our refusal to die for anyone other than Lebanon. Negotiations do not mean, and will never mean, the surrender of any right, the abandonment of any principle, or the violation of the sovereignty of this nation.
We have lost thousands of Lebanese. They are our sons and daughters, and we will not forget them. And I will not allow, from this day forward, a single Lebanese to die, nor will I allow the bleeding of my family and my people to continue for the sake of the interests and influence of others, or the calculations of axes of power, whether near or far. Between suicide and prosperity, my people and I choose prosperity, and reject suicide. Between misleading slogans that destroy and rational steps that build, my people and I stand with reason. Between futile, gratuitous, recurring death under the pretext of outside causes, and life for our nation and our people, with dignity, freedom, and well-being, my people and I stand with life.
I have said it before, and I repeat it now: I am ready to bear full responsibility for these choices, and I am ready to go wherever necessary to liberate my land, protect my people, and save my country. My mission is one, clear, and specific: to save this country and its people. This is what I will do with absolute national, human, and moral conviction, and I know that you are with me. In your hearts and in public, you are with me. In your hearts and in your minds, you are with me, because I know the scale of the sacrifices you have made, and I know what it means for a person to lose loved ones, or a home, or the sense of security.
And I say to you with honesty and resolve: this pain will not be our fate forever. Here I affirm, in the language of commitment and promise, that there will be no agreement that infringes upon our national rights, diminishes the dignity of our steadfast people, or concedes a single grain of this nation’s soil. Our goal is clear and declared: to end the Israeli aggression against our land and our people, to secure an Israeli withdrawal, to extend the authority of the state over its entire territory exclusively through its own forces, to secure the return of the prisoners, and to ensure the return of our people to their homes and villages with security, freedom, and dignity intact.
My family, my loved ones, the strength of this nation lies first and foremost in the awareness of its people, and in its unity founded on truth, justice, and the choice of living together, in accordance with the principles of our National Pact. One state alone deserves our full loyalty and our final belonging; one constitution to which we all submit; one body of laws to which we are all subject; and one-armed force that protects us all.
Do not allow doubtful and accusatory voices to sow division among you. Do not be drawn behind those who exploit your emotions in order to build their own glory at the expense of your stability. Let reason guide you, overcome the instincts of those who mislead, and trust that what we are doing today and tomorrow is for your safety, your protection, and your free, dignified, and secure life, and so that we may offer your children a future of greater safety and stability, rather than turning them into mere numbers added to death every few years, sacrifices to outside interests, whether near or far. Everyone who fell for the nation left our hearts before leaving their homes, and every house that was destroyed took with it a part of our conscience and our memory. That is why we will rebuild it, hand in hand, better than it was before.
All Lebanese are in one boat: either we steer it wisely until we bring it safely to shore, or we sink it and sink with it all together. No one has the right to commit such a crime, not under the pretext of a slogan, not out of a suicidal impulse, and not out of loyalty to anyone other than Lebanon and its people. Today, in the name of your sacrifices and your suffering, in loyalty to those we have lost and in faithfulness to those of our people who remain steadfast, I call on you to open your hearts and your minds, and not to allow slogans of accusation and treason to cloud your sight or your judgment, for nations are not built by instinct, but by awareness, unity, and trust.
To the displaced, I say: you will return to your homes, for they come alive through you, and we are with you and by your side, and we will not fail you. To those who remained in their homes under danger, your sacrifices will not be in vain, and pride will remain your defining mark, one in which we take great pride. And to those who gamble with the fate of Lebanon and the lives of the Lebanese, I say: enough. The state project in Lebanon alone is the strongest, the most enduring, and the safest for all.
And to the world I say: Lebanon will not be broken, its people will not die, and its right will prevail. Our future we shall make by our own will and by the will of all Lebanese.
Long live my people.
Long live Lebanon.
