Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: The Heresy and Nonsense of the So-Called “National Dialogue for the Disarmament of the Terrorist Hezbollah”—A False Pretense and an Evasion of Confrontation
Text & Video: The Heresy and Nonsense of the So-Called “National Dialogue for the Disarmament of the Terrorist Hezbollah”—A False Pretense and an Evasion of Confrontation Elias Bejjani/April 09/2025
In yet another act of political theater—an all-too-familiar Lebanese charade—the ruling establishment, across the three presidencies, the government, and Hezbollah’s propaganda apparatus, continues to promote the farcical notion of a so-called “national dialogue” and “national defense strategy” to address the armed presence of Hezbollah. As if this were merely a matter of differing viewpoints or strategic disagreement—not the blatant, armed, and declared Iranian occupation of Lebanon that paralyzes the state and threatens its very existence, sovereignty, and stability.
President Joseph Aoun’s oath of office was clear: exclusive legitimacy of arms must reside with the Lebanese state. His mandate, grounded in the internationally endorsed ceasefire agreement with Israel—signed not only by the Lebanese government but by ministers affiliated with Hezbollah and blessed by Speaker Nabih Berri, Hezbollah’s so-called “elder brother”—was to implement this agreement and disarm the terrorist militia. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s ministerial statement also affirmed unwavering commitment to this same agreement and to UN resolutions.
It must be noted here that President Aoun and the majority of the Lebanese know very well that Parliament did not elect Aoun voluntarily and out of conviction, nor did he come with the approval of Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, and the Iranian axis, or with the consensus of the majority of Lebanese parties. Rather, He was imposed by the international Quintet Committee (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., France, and Qatar) as a rescue candidate, entrusted with a singular mission: to enforce the ceasefire and dismantle Hezbollah’s military apparatus—not to maneuver, stall, or deceive.
The same applies to Nawaf Salam, who swiftly abandoned the task entrusted to him.Yielding to the pressures of Nabih Berri and the mafia-like political class, Salam shamelessly handed key ministries—most notably the Ministry of Finance—back to the Amal Movement, thus reaffirming the dominance of the very forces he was supposed to oppose. His actions exposed the hollowness of his claims to neutrality, independence, and reform, and revealed his readiness to barter national responsibility for personal political gain.
More troubling still is President Aoun’s post-France visit retreat. Instead of honoring his oath, he regressed into the deceptive discourse of “national dialogue,” recycling misleading terminology such as “defense strategy” and “national security” to mask surrender and submission to Hezbollah’s narrative. This linguistic acrobatics is nothing but a shameful capitulation, a deliberate evasion of the urgent need for a bold, decisive stance: to disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its terrorist military, financial, and intelligence infrastructure.
President Aoun must now choose: either fulfill the mission for which he was internationally installed or resign. His current approach—marked by political acrobatics, equivocation, and appeasement—serves only to entrench Hezbollah’s occupation and reinforce its stranglehold over Lebanon’s security, sovereignty, and future.
As for Nawaf Salam, the mask has fully dropped. His Arab nationalist, Nasserist agenda—obsolete and counterproductive—has surfaced, echoing the flawed stances of figures like Tarek Mitri and Ghassan Salamé, who never hesitated to issue statements that align with Hezbollah’s interests and obstruct the enforcement of international mandates. Meanwhile many ministers have even grown too timid to utter Hezbollah’s name, speaking instead in vague terms like “components” and “stakeholders”—just as some avoid calling cancer by its name, as though truth itself were taboo.
The path forward is unequivocal: President Aoun, Prime Minister Salam, and their government must implement—word for word—the terms of the ceasefire agreement. They must set a strict, short-term timeline to disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its operational structure. If they cannot, or will not, they must resign.
Lebanon cannot afford further betrayal or paralysis, especially now, when a rare and historic opportunity has emerged: the disintegration of the Iranian terror axis, the effective defeat of Hezbollah through the ceasefire, and the collapse of its logistical backbone following the Assad regime’s fall in Syria.
In this context, the message from Ms. Morgan Ortagus, President Donald Trump’s representative, was crystal clear: no financial aid, no investment, and no political support will come before Hezbollah is disarmed and the ceasefire implemented. Her statement was blunt, both to Lebanese officials and in media interviews: “Hezbollah is a cancer and must be eradicated from its roots.” This is the reality that Lebanon’s political class either fears or refuses to confront—but the consequences of fear or complicity are the same: no state.
Evidence of this cowardice and duplicity is overwhelming. As Al Arabiya reported on April 8, 2025, Hezbollah still fully controls the Port of Beirut—using it for rampant smuggling in full defiance of state authority, economic integrity, and national security. This flagrant breach exposes not only Hezbollah’s criminal impunity but the Lebanese government’s impotence in confronting it.
Ultimately, Lebanon stands at a crossroads. The choice is stark and urgent: either a unified, sovereign, and independent state—or the continued decay under Hezbollah’s Iranian-backed shadow-state that devours everything in its path.
