From his small shop in Beirut, facing a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, Qassem Saad said he was exhausted by repeated Israeli wars on Lebanon, and hoped negotiations could end decades of suffering.

“We know that Israel will remain an enemy to us, but we are tired,” 49-year-old Saad, who suffered a minor injury in the strike, told AFP this week.

Lebanon and Israel met Tuesday for direct talks for the first time in 43 years. The goal of the negotiations led by the countries’ ambassadors, as announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 9, is to dismantle the Hezbollah terror group’s weapons and regulate peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon. Lebanese authorities, for their part, stressed that Beirut’s priority is first to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The US, Israel and Lebanon issued a joint statement following the meeting, saying that they had held “productive discussions toward launching direct negotiations” between Beirut and Jerusalem.

“What matters to us is to reach a stage where we can raise our children and live in peace,” Saad said. “If there is a comprehensive solution for peace, we are for it, on the condition that no one encroaches on the other.”

“If Israel withdraws from all of the south… hands over our prisoners, gives us our rights and guarantees no more attacks… I am certainly in favor of the negotiations.”

Israeli forces are currently deployed in southern Lebanon, having entered there after Hezbollah began launching attacks on Israel at the start of March in support of its patron Iran.

Contrasting headlines

A day before the talks began, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem made his position clear, calling on Lebanon’s leaders to cancel what he described as a “surrender” by the Lebanese government to the United States.

Addressing President Joseph Aoun, Qassem said: “They are pressuring you to fight against your own people; they will not be satisfied until everything in Lebanon is destroyed in........

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