Lebanon Let Itself Down
in New York and Missed
Its Chance for Salvation.
My head literally spun — not metaphorically. PM Nawaf Salam’s UNGA address was an echo of what President Aoun said a year ago, which was itself a retreat from Lebanon’s declared commitments. We’ve returned to the tune of truce and temporary ceasefire. An earthquake since October 7 is redrawing the region. And amidst it, Lebanon is squandering its chance for salvation.
There are moments that reveal the true distance between the rhetoric of power and the pulse of the people. I experienced one while listening to Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s address to the United Nations General Assembly — an echo of President Joseph Aoun’s own statements, which had themselves begun to foreshadow a shift in position since his recent visit to Nabatieh, and a retreat from Lebanon’s declared commitments. We’ve returned to the tune of truce and temporary ceasefire.
My head literally spun — not metaphorically. That moment encapsulated everything: an earthquake since October 7th is redrawing and reshaping the region. And amidst it, Lebanon is squandering its chance for salvation. The painful truth is that this isn’t the first time. Joseph Aoun missed the same opportunity in New York a year ago, and now Nawaf Salam is repeating it — two on separate dates, with the same result.
As if Lebanon has the luxury of time while teetering on the brink of an economic and social explosion that could precede a security collapse. We have squandered twenty months since this government took office, culminating in this disastrous end in New York.
Listen to his speech at the United Nations, and then to his interview on Al-Arabiya: a speech that seemed outdated, monotonous, and empty, failing to align with the actual narrative of this stage or its magnitude, and reflecting a disconnect from reality and the very purpose of the situation.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Salam meets next Monday alongside Foreign Minister Youssef Raji, is no ordinary diplomat. He simultaneously holds the position of National Security Advisor — the first to combine the two roles since Henry Kissinger in the 1970s.
In other words, the man Salam will be sitting across from holds the reins of both US foreign and security policy simultaneously. Any impression left in that room will not go unnoticed.
Any repetition of the same Al-Arabiya speech will not only be another missed opportunity — it will be a de facto declaration that the US is closing the door on Lebanon.
How I, like many others, wished to see a Lebanese leader stand before the world and declare, as Anwar Sadat did in 1977, that Lebanon desires peace — not to be dragged into it against its will after it’s too late.
- “Controlling weapons” has become meaningless when it serves as a pretext for indefinitely postponing “disarmament.”
- Why is the disarmament of Hezbollah consistently omitted from every statement, while Lebanon demands everything from Israel — full withdrawal, halt to violations, reparations?
- Lebanon asks America and the world for weapons for the army and funding for reconstruction — yet demands nothing from Iran and its terrorist proxy.
- This is not balanced policy. It is blatant bias disguised behind vague terminology.
“How I wished to see a Lebanese leader stand before the world and declare, as Anwar Sadat did in 1977, that Lebanon desires peace — not to be dragged into it against its will after it’s too late.” — Elissa El Hachem · MTV Lebanon · Faith & Freedom News
What logic connects sitting in the same room with those who fund what Lebanon considers an existential threat, and refusing to listen to those with whom it has been negotiating for eight rounds? This is not a sovereign stance. It is evidence of a lack of vision, and utterly childish behavior — more akin to imitating peers than making an independent sovereign decision.
We do not want to sink in the same boat as Hezbollah and Iran. We don’t want to be tied to a ship that’s already sinking. Just hours after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and return to the negotiating table. War is coming; the door to negotiations has been slammed shut in the regime’s face by a Chinese endorsement.
This is the “ally” on whom those who reject normalization and refuse to disarm Hezbollah are relying.
From Kuwait to Saudi Arabia, the region is rushing towards normalization to ensure security, prosperity, growth, and stability. It’s only a matter of time — the coming months will prove it.
This is precisely what Lebanon should have done: demand peace along with normalization. Instead, Lebanon parrots one word: truce.
And what has Lebanon done in the last twenty months? Nothing.
“Even if we don’t walk towards peace willingly, we will be dragged to it — because history waits for no one. But by our procrastination, we will not be the ones to dictate the terms of this peace. We will be led into a version of it that may not reflect our own values.”
All that remains for us now is the hope that the American administration will keep the door open for us to one day join the Abraham Accords — even belatedly.
The opportunity was there, in New York, wide open. And we are the ones who closed it ourselves.
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