Negotiations have a much higher chance of ending the Israeli violations than staying locked in one place, President Joseph Aoun told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Monday.

Aoun's comments come as Lebanon and Israel moved toward direct negotiations

Maronite Patriarch Beshra al-Rahi said Monday after meeting with President Joseph Aoun that the relation between Bkerki and Baabda is very good and negotiations with Israel are better than war threats.

"I have no fears (of a new war) and we are now in the time of diplomacy and negotiations," al-Rahi told reporters in a short press conference after the meeting.

Ilan Rosenfeld walks through the burnt-out shell of his former business, stepping over crackling pieces of clay plates that used to line his cafe and past metal scraps of Hezbollah rockets littering the rubble.

It's all that's left for him in this small, war-ravaged town — the northernmost in Israel, surrounded on three sides by Lebanon.

U.S. President Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night and urged him to shift gradually from offensive operations and escalation threats in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria to diplomacy and confidence-building measures, senior officials told Israel's Ynet news portal.

"The shift, Trump argued, is necessary to advance the civilian stage of his '20-Point Plan' for Gaza and to work toward a stable, long-term end to hostilities, with the possibility of additional normalization agreements," the officials said.

A United Nations Security Council delegation has urged all parties to uphold a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, expressing support for a state weapons monopoly at the end of a Lebanon visit.

The Lebanese Army on Saturday announced the arrest of six individuals accused of attacking a UNIFIL patrol in Bint Jbeil in south Lebanon.

A group of U.S. members of Congress have sent a letter to President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah, saying the process “must begin now, even by force if necessary.”

The lawmakers said Lebanon committed under the November 2024 ceasefire to launch a gradual process to dismantle Hezbollah’s military structure and restore state authority across the country, but argued that “empty promises and partial measures that fall short of disarmament are nowhere near enough.”

France is seriously leading a project to keep UNIFIL’s international forces in Lebanon under a new mandate that includes comprehensive supervision of the Lebanese border with Syria while maintaining a limited number of observers on the southern border, informed sources said.

The recent visit of the French presidential envoy to Lebanon, Anne-Claire Legendre, was primarily aimed at offering "France's services" to sponsor a Lebanese-Syrian dialogue for the purpose of demarcating the land and sea borders between the two countries, the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Friday that the inclusion of a civilian Lebanese representative in the Mechanism committee is “a measure that clearly violates all the previous official statements and stances that had called for halting the enemy’s hostilities prior to involving any civilian in the Mechanism.”

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urged a United Nations Security Council delegation on Friday to pressure Israel to respect a year-old ceasefire and to halt its one-sided war on Lebanon.

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems "strategic".