Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun says negotiations with Israel are “making progress”, but insists that his country will not accept any continued Israeli presence on its territory, Al Jazeera reports.

“There is no disagreement among the Lebanese on the goals, from the Israeli withdrawal and the return of the prisoners, to the reconstruction of what has been destroyed,” Aoun said, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency following a meeting with a delegation from the Maronite Institution for Propagation.

“In the end, we will not allow Israel to remain, not even on a single inch of our land, nor a single soldier of its army to stay on our soil,” he added.

Aoun said negotiations remained preferable to “the outcomes of the destructive war waged against us”, adding that Israeli attacks had been reduced since the signing of the framework for talks.