Published on 6/13/2026
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Last update: 13:24 (Mecca time)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun confirmed today, Saturday, that his country is facing a fateful decision: either the state will monopolize weapons or remain hostage to the logic of the militias, while Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called on Hezbollah to surrender its weapons and support Washington’s negotiations.
Aoun said – on the 48th anniversary of the assassination of former Minister Tony Suleiman Franjieh – that this painful anniversary “comes as Lebanon faces a fateful fate: either its people will unite in a sovereign state that will monopolize weapons and protect the citizen regardless of their affiliation and position, or it will remain hostage to the logic of the militias (without naming them).”
Franjieh, his wife Vera, and their daughter Jihan, were killed, along with a number of his companions and supporters, following an attack targeting his residence in the town of Ehden, northern Lebanon, in 1978 during the Lebanese Civil War.
Aoun said, “Remembering this painful event requires us to learn from the lessons of blood what the years of peace did not teach us.”
The Lebanese government is implementing a plan to confine weapons to the state, including Hezbollah’s weapons, but the party clings to its weapons and stresses that it is a resistance movement to the Israeli occupation.
In a related context, Aoun said that his country “is at a moment that cannot tolerate sectarian luxury or regional tension. National unity today is not a slogan raised on occasions, but rather an existential necessity built with frankness, strengthened with justice, and rooted in fairness to all components of this people without exception.”
He reiterated that he seeks a Lebanon “where its children live free and equal, united not only by geography, but also by true citizenship and belonging to a state of rights and law.”
“Priority of interest”
For his part, the Prime Minister of Lebanon asked Hezbollah to save the country and give priority to its interests over those of Iran, and for the party to be on the same path with the government to secure the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, he said.
Salam told Reuters, “Hezbollah must be faster than us, or at the same speed, and declare its support for the negotiations we are conducting in Washington.”
These negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are scheduled to resume, under American auspices, on June 22.
Lebanon demands a permanent ceasefire as a basis for negotiations that lead to a complete Israeli withdrawal and the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians, under the supervision of the Lebanese army.
Israel wants to dismantle Hezbollah as a military force – at least – in southern Lebanon, and prove the disappearance of its power before abandoning the occupied territories.
Salam did not hide that Lebanon was affected by the Islamabad negotiations, but he reaffirmed the insistence on negotiating as an independent state, “in whose name no one negotiates.”
He added in his office: “We are of course affected by the negotiation process in Islamabad…so how about a war and its results being fought on our land? We are affected by war, peace, and truce in the region. Islamabad, or any other place, would leave its impact on us.”
Salam considered that Lebanon chose the least expensive path, and refused to consider Hezbollah’s disarmament an Israeli condition, saying, “The Lebanese agreed in the Taif Agreement in 1989 to extend the authority of the Lebanese state over its entire territory, and we emphasized this matter in our ministerial statement, and stressed the exclusivity of weapons and restoring the decision of war and peace in the hands of the state. Did Israel sit with us at the table and contribute to the formulation of our ministerial statement? Of course not.”
Salam added: “We are in constant contact with Hezbollah, and all that is required of it is to implement its obligations. The south is supposed to be a weapons-free zone, and Hezbollah has twice given confidence in the government, whose ministerial statement stresses the exclusivity of weapons, and nothing more is required of it than that.”
Salam continued: “Our problem with Hezbollah is Hezbollah’s weapons. We consider the party a Lebanese political force, and we want it to fulfill its Lebanese obligations. We ask you to adhere to your pledges.”
The party refused
For its part, Hezbollah rejected the ceasefire plan agreed upon by the Lebanese and Israeli governments in the Washington talks.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem – who did not participate in the talks – said that the negotiations were “shameful” and rejected Washington’s declaration, saying that it was “a road map to exterminate a section of the Lebanese people and enslave the rest.”
Salam and Aoun’s statements come at a time when Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue, in violation of the fragile ceasefire agreement that has been in effect since April 17, and extended until the beginning of next July.
The death toll from the escalating Israeli aggression against Lebanon since the second of last March reached 3,711 dead and 11,483 wounded.
Israel has been occupying areas in southern Lebanon, some of them for decades, and others it penetrated during the previous war between 2023 and 2024, while during the current aggression it advanced to a distance of more than 10 kilometers from the border, in its deepest incursion since its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.
