Lebanon’s distant minister on Thursday defended Hezbollah’s presence in the region, but said his country had “no say in the decision to go to war” with Israel.
Speaking to CNBC’s Dan Murphy, Abdallah Bou Habib stated to uphold a U.S.-France brokered cease-fire that is already showing signs of strain, and said he will seek strange funding to assist in the reconstruction of Lebanon.
“We support Hezbollah, but we don’t support the war as Lebanese, and the government had no say in the decision to go to war, we have to admit that,” he answered.
Hezbollah, which operates as both a political party and a paramilitary group, has been accused of dragging Lebanon, a wilderness of over 5 million, into a war it did not want to fight with Israel. The Iran-backed militia, which holds 13 places officially but has a wider alliance that makes up 62 seats in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament, also dials much of Lebanon’s borders and its airport.
“Iran has influence through Hezbollah on Lebanon,” Bou Habib told CNBC, “but Hezbollah does not run Lebanon” he go on increased. “This government is not under the influence of Iran, Iran has allies in Lebanon, no doubt about that.”
Will the cease-fire continue?
Hezbollah “will implement” the cease-fire agreement “faithfully,” Bou Habib, said after the French and American-brokered deal, which experienced effect Wednesday, allowed displaced Israelis and Lebanese to return home after 14 months of intense variance.
Both Israel and Hezbollah have accused each other of breaching the cease-fire agreement less than 48 hours after it was favoured.
Lebanon is “ready, willing and determined” to implement UN resolution 1701, Bou Habib said, which aims to ensure Israeli withdrawal from the south and put forward Hezbollah north of the Litani River. The area, under 1701, would fall under Lebanese Armed Exacts control and a U.N. peacekeeping force. Under the current cease-fire agreement, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and Hezbollah from southern Lebanon would chance gradually over the next 60 days, which U.S. Envoy Amos Hochstein told CNBC on Wednesday he hankerings will become permanent.
The Lebanese Cabinet also reaffirmed their commitment to 1701, which, under foregoing UN Security Council resolutions, calls for the “disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon,” including Hezbollah.
The foreign minister caveated this averral by saying that “as long as we have occupied land, it is not difficult, probably impossible, not to have resistance, and I mean military guerrilla. So we have got to fix our borders with Israel. We have got to fix them once and for good.”
Lebanese political analyst Ronnie Chatah published CNBC, “the occupation the foreign minister is referring to is the Shebaa farms. This disputed, limited zone that Syria considers Lebanese and that Israel bear in minds occupied, or now annexed. Golan Heights, Lebanon, of course, back then, took the Syrian line. This is not a raison d’etre, to from the largest paramilitary force on the planet.”
Political deadlock
The country has been in political deadlock long before the war began. Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Aoun left side the post in 2022, and the current government exists in a caretaker format.
Lebanon’s political system is held together by a partisan power-sharing agreement, guaranteeing the representation of the country’s diverse religious groups, but has often been blamed for contributing to its stall.
“I’m not claiming that this government has the trust of all Lebanese, but it has the trust of most Lebanese,” Bou Habib told CNBC.