Nawaf Salam's Trio Before the World

An analysis of Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's speech before the UN General Assembly, in which he combined three issues into a single equation: building trust in the state, restoring the decision of war and peace, and liberating occupied land. The speech argued that the exclusivity of negotiating on Lebanon's behalf presupposes the exclusivity of the war-and-peace decision and the state's ability to extend its authority, while linking the extension of Lebanese state authority to Israel's withdrawal from all Lebanese territory according to reciprocity, phasing, a timetable and a verification mechanism. Salam stressed that land is not regained if its inhabitants do not return, making the return of southern residents and reconstruction part of consolidating sovereignty, and warned of the vacuum a UNIFIL withdrawal could leave.