Lebanese President Responds to Hezbollah: Betrayal in Dragging Lebanon into Wars of Others

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun defended his decision to enter negotiations with Israel, stressing that the ceasefire is a necessary first step for any subsequent negotiation process.

 In a statement on Monday, April 27, Aoun pointed out that the statement issued by the US State Department after the first session included in its third paragraph an affirmation that Israel will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, whether civilian or military, on land, sea or air.

In response to criticism of the decision to negotiate, referring to Hezbollah, Aoun asked: "When you went to war, did you first get the national consensus?"He said that some parties were quick to accuse treason and claim that the government is entering the negotiations in the position of the capitulator , and that the negotiations must be waited for the start of negotiations and their results to be judged.

The Lebanese president stressed  that what the state is doing does not constitute treason, adding: "Treason is committed by those who take their country to war in the service of foreign interests," and asked how long the people of the south will continue to pay the price for the wars of others on Lebanon's soil, the latest of which is the war of supporting Gaza and the war of supporting Iran, and said: "If the war was for Lebanon, we would have supported it, but when it is to achieve the interests of others, I reject it completely."

Aoun denounced  the description of the truce as humiliating, considering that it is his duty to take responsibility for his decision and lead the country on the path of salvation within the constants he declared, with the aim of ending the state of war with Israel similar to the truce agreement, and that he will not accept any agreement that harms the dignity of Lebanon.

Qassem attacks Lebanese president: "We will not give up arms"

For his part, Hizbullah Secretary-General Naim Qassem reiterated his rejection of direct negotiations with Israel, describing the Lebanese authority's move as a "gratuitous and humiliating concession."

 Qassem said that Israel, with American support, has bet on ending Hezbollah since the battle of "The Brave Ones" on September 23  , 2024, but "the resistance surprised it in the battle of the Eaten Storm with legendary steadfastness and diversity of fighting methods, which brought the enemy to an impasse," as he described it.

Qassem stressed that Hezbollah will not give up its defensive weapons, considering that the problem lies in "the Israeli aggression and that what the party is doing is a reaction to it, adding: "We will not return to the pre-March 2  situation, and we will respond to the aggression and we will not back down, we will not bow down and we will not be defeated."

Qassem called on the Lebanese authority to reverse what he described as "sins", stop direct negotiations and return to indirect negotiations, and cancel the resolution that criminalizes Hezbollah, stressing that the ceasefire would not have been achieved without Iran.

The  secretary-general of Hezbollah vowed that "the Israeli enemy will not remain on an inch of the occupied Lebanese territory, and that the people will return to their villages until the last inch of the southern border," adding that "direct negotiations and their outcomes do not exist for Hezbollah and do not concern it."

Geagea: Lebanon is paying the price for a regional war

Lebanon is going through a phase of "a war that has caused great losses", said Lebanese Forces party leader Samir Geagea, saying that what is happening comes in the context of a broader regional conflict between the United States and Israel on the one hand, and Iran on the other.

In an interview with Al-Jadeed TV, he stressed that the Lebanese state "cannot remain a bystander," even though it is "not a direct party" in this confrontation, considering that the Lebanese government has "the only way" to stop the war is to communicate with the United States to put pressure on Israel , and that this path has already been started by the president and the prime minister.

Geagea blamed Hizbullah for bringing Lebanon into the conflict, calling it "a faction in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)," calling on it to "let the Lebanese state deal with the repercussions of the crisis."

He criticized what he described as the duplicity of the party's positions, saying that it "applauds Iran when it violates the ceasefire, but blames the Lebanese state when it violates it", calling for holding those influential in the military decision responsible for stabilizing the truce.

Geagea stressed that the Lebanese state "cannot remain a bystander" to what is happening, because it "owns the land and there are Lebanese citizens who are paying the price."

He called for putting forward clear alternatives if there are other ways to stop the war away from the American track, adding: "Whoever has another solution, let him put it forward or remain silent."