President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that Lebanon has “no choice but negotiation,” stressing that diplomacy remains the only viable path forward as military options have failed to yield results.

“Lebanon has no choice but negotiation,” Aoun said during a meeting with a delegation from the Khalil family at the Baabda Presidential Palace. 

“In politics, there are three tools of action: diplomacy, the economy, and war. When war leads nowhere, what else can be done? Every war in the world has ended through negotiation, and negotiations are not held with a friend or ally, but with an enemy.”

“I am not a politician; I am a statesman,” he said. “Some people see Lebanon as their property. I see myself as the property of Lebanon.”