Lebanese Prime Minister Salam: Waiting for a grand regional deal is not an option — he demands Israel’s withdrawal

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam delivered a speech in the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, while Israeli strikes on the region continue unabated, as Al Jazeera reports in its liveblog on the U.S.–Iran war.

“The war in southern Lebanon was not our choice, but it was imposed on us,” Salam said, adding that the scale of needs in the area “exceeds the capacity of the state” and that the country needs considerable financing.

He stressed that the government’s priorities are stopping the “aggressions” and securing Israel’s withdrawal, the return of Lebanese citizens to their towns, and building the state with a “single army.”

“Waiting for a grand regional deal is not an option for us, because it may come or not, or it may come at our expense,” Salam declared — a clear signal that Beirut will not tie the fate of the south to the U.S.–Iran negotiations.