BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam reassured critics that the US-brokered framework agreement with Israel does not prevent Lebanon from pursuing legal action over alleged Israeli war crimes, insisting the accord merely suspends such action while negotiations proceed in good faith.
The clarification came after Clause 13 of the framework agreement sparked criticism from legal experts, activists and opposition figures, who argued that its wording could undermine Lebanon’s ability to hold Israel accountable before international courts.
Speaking in a televised address on Wednesday evening, Salam rejected those concerns, saying Lebanon had “not given up any right.”
The clause, he explained, “stipulates the halting or suspension of the right to resort to international courts for as long as negotiations are proceeding in good faith.”
Salam, a former president of the International Court of Justice, argued that international humanitarian law does not permit states to waive accountability for war crimes. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, he said, such rights fall within peremptory norms of international law, or jus cogens, and therefore cannot be surrendered through political agreements.
