Lebanese President Joseph Aoun launched a scathing attack on Hezbollah Monday, accusing the Iran-backed group of deliberately seeking to trigger Lebanon's « collapse », and calling for direct negotiations with Israel to end the war.
Joseph Aoun © LMS
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun launched a scathing attack on Hezbollah Monday, accusing the Iran-backed group of deliberately seeking to trigger Lebanon's « collapse », and calling for direct negotiations with Israel to end the war.
"Those who fired the missiles" at Israel wanted to "provoke Lebanon's collapse on behalf of Iran , and that is what we have defeated," Aoun declared, striking an unusually forceful tone against the Shiite movement during a videoconference with European leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa.
The Lebanese president did not mince words. He described Hezbollah as "an armed faction beyond state authority, which gives no weight to Lebanon's interests or the lives of its people », a remarkable statement from a head of state about a powerful force operating within his own borders.
Aoun confirmed that Monday's government decision banning all Hezbollah military and security activity was "clear and irrevocable." He outlined a three-step path to ending hostilities: a ceasefire with Israel, logistical support for the Lebanese army to deploy in conflict zones, and the full disarmament of Hezbollah.
Most strikingly, he called for direct Lebanon-Israel negotiations under international sponsorship, an extraordinary proposal between two countries technically still at war.
Israel has been relentlessly striking Lebanon since Hezbollah dragged the country into the regional war with Iran on March 2 by launching missiles at Israeli territory. Since then, nearly 400 people have been killed and half a million displaced.
The message from Beirut is now unambiguous: Lebanon's president has chosen his country over Hezbollah, and he is saying so out loud.
Hezbollah said on Monday its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in eastern Lebanon during an Israeli airborne raid overnight, in what would be the second such operation in the area in recent days, as the war between Israel and the Iran-backed group entered a second week.
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Joe Raggi delivered a scathing indictment of Hezbollah, accusing the group of once again sacrificing Lebanon's national interests on the altar of Iranian foreign policy.
For too long, the West treated Iran’s nuclear program as a negotiable irritant and its missile arsenal as a manageable nuisance. That fiction is over.
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