Published in the Jerusalem Post, 26 May 2026
.jpg)
Ever since he was elected Lebanon’s president
in January 2025, Joseph Aoun has emphasized that his primary aim is to
end the humiliation of
Hezbollah acting with impunity as “a state within a state”. The nation, he decided, will no
longer allow its sovereignty to be leased out to Iran or its proxy. He will reclaim it.
National sovereignty was being flouted on a daily basis by Iran’s ambassador-designate to Lebanon, Mohammad Reza Sheibani. Not yet formally accredited, he had distinguished his brief period in office by continually interfering in the nation's internal politics. Moreover, he used his diplomatic cover to support Hezbollah’s military operations. On March 24 the government declared him persona non grata and gave him until March 29 to leave the country.
"The ambassador will not leave
Lebanon,” an Iranian diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on the
28th. This decision, he informed them, was in accordance with the wishes of Hezbollah
and the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri. Berri, a Shi’ite Muslim, is a known supporter
of Hezbollah.
So Sheibani remained in his
residence in Beirut, and on March 30 Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson,
Esmail Baghaei, told a press briefing in Tehran: “Our embassy in Lebanon
remains operational.”
No greater affront to a nation’s sovereignty
could be envisaged. Iran was telling the world that the Lebanese government was
not the master in its own house. Aoun
took action. He wrote to UN
Secretary-General António Guterres and the Security Council President.
The complaint, which was filed officially
on April 21, accused Sheibani of taking action, including issuing statements to
the media, that amounted to direct interference in the nation’s internal
affairs. It went on to charge Iran with multiple violations including "interfering
in Lebanon's sovereign decision-making and entangling the state in a war it
never chose". Moreover Lebanon accused Iran of "deploying Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps personnel in Lebanon under the guise of diplomatic
activity.”
The letter challenges Iran’s accounts
to the UN about Israeli strikes in Beirut, arguing that Tehran’s narrative is
“full of falsehoods”. And it accuses
Iran of violating the Vienna Convention and international diplomatic norms by refusing
to comply with Lebanon’s sovereign decision to expel Sheibani. The 1961 Vienna Convention sets out the rules
governing diplomacy between states.
Lebanon invited the UN to
recognize and condemn these actions as breaches of international law, and to confirm
that its order to expel Sheibani is legally valid and must be respected. A response is awaited. Unfortunately, effective action from the
Security Council on this issue, as on so many, is less than assured.
This effort to assert Lebanon’s
national sovereignty is only the most recent of Aoun’s attempts. Parliament
elected him on January 8, 2025, after more than two years of a presidential
vacancy. With the restoration of
national sovereignty his priority, in August 2025 Aoun and his cabinet instructed the army
to develop a comprehensive plan to bring all weapons in the country under the
control of state security forces, thereby ending Hezbollah’s autonomy.
One month later Lebanon’s army chief, Rodolphe Haykal, presented the cabinet with a multi‑phase, region‑by‑region plan for disarming Hezbollah and other non‑state armed groups, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that all military hardware in Lebanon would be held exclusively by the state. It began with a first phase aimed at removing Hezbollah’s weapons south of the Litani river by the end of 2025.
The cabinet authorized the
army to begin enacting it at once. But it soon became clear that government forces lacked
the capacity to implement the scheme. The army made some progress in dislodging
Hezbollah from areas of southern Lebanon, but the plan was basically unviable. The state
could not regain national sovereignty without help.
So from March 2026 Aoun began pushing the idea of face‑to‑face ceasefire talks
with Israel, as part of a broader strategy that would ultimately bring
Hezbollah’s weapons, and therefore Hezbollah itself, under state control.
The first 2026 Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal was agreed on April 16,
announced by US President Donald Trump following discussions with prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and President Aoun. Initially set to last ten days, the
ceasefire was subsequently extended by three weeks on April 23, and then, on
May 15, by an additional 45 days.
There had been no official contact between Israel and Lebanon for four
decades, so these negotiations were to be welcomed. But what is the point of a ceasefire between
two countries not in conflict with each other? It is not the Lebanese armed forces but the
uncontrollable Hezbollah that, at Iran’s behest, is attacking northern Israel,
while Israel is trying to degrade its capacity to do so.
Aoun is in a difficult position. On
May 18 Lebanon’s al‑Jadeed TV channel published “a rare glimpse into
Lebanese public opinion,” undertaken by the Beirut‑based statistics firm
Information International. It showed that Hezbollah still enjoys the support of
much of the Muslim population – as against Christian, Maronite and Druze citizens,
who are overwhelmingly opposed – and Aoun is fearful that too obvious an
alliance with Israel could stir up civil conflict. So for public consumption he steers clear of
any suggestion of a Lebanon-Israel collaboration to disempower Hezbollah. He
presents it as an effort to end further civilian casualties and structural
damage.
In reality, however, preventing further devastation within Lebanon is
dependent not on a pointless ceasefire agreement, but on Hezbollah’s actions,
and Aoun has been unable to dissuade Hezbollah from continuing its armed
attacks. The ceasefire has therefore had
no effect on Israel’s response. On May
17 the media reported IDF strikes at nearly 100 Hezbollah targets in southern
Lebanon.
Israel also acts, when the opportunity arises, to eliminate known senior
Hezbollah officials. For example on May
6, in an airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a commander of
Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, Ahmed Ali Balout, was targeted and killed.
It may be inexpedient for Aoun to admit it, but the truth is that the more
Israel weakens Hezbollah, the more the president moves towards his objective of
re-establishing Lebanon’s sovereignty over the terrorist organization.
Published in the Jerusalem Post titled "Recapture Lebanon's sovereignty", and the Jerusalem Post on-line, 26 May 2026:
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-897227
No comments:
Post a Comment