Makhzoumi Backs Direct Talks with Israel, Demands Weapon-Free Beirut and Dismantling of Parallel Economy After MP Assault
In a week of sharp political signals from Beirut, MP Fouad Makhzoumi delivered his most comprehensive sovereignty statement yet — backing President Aoun’s path, calling for a weapon-free capital, and demanding the dismantling of Hezbollah’s financial infrastructure — even as a fellow MP survived an armed attack underscoring Lebanon’s fragile domestic order.
Lebanese Member of Parliament Fouad Makhzoumi has emerged this week as one of the most forceful voices for state sovereignty in Lebanon’s fractured political landscape — publishing a detailed, unambiguous manifesto backing direct negotiations with Israel, demanding the dismantling of Hezbollah’s parallel financial economy, calling for a weapon-free Beirut, and affirming full confidence in President Joseph Aoun’s leadership.
The statement, delivered after his meeting at the Lebanese Presidential Palace and subsequently published in full on his personal account, is among the most detailed and candid sovereignty declarations by a sitting Lebanese MP in recent memory. Its breadth — covering diplomacy, economics, security, and justice — signals a deliberate attempt to set a comprehensive legislative agenda around the restoration of state authority.
Key Points — Lebanese Presidency Statement | MP Makhzoumi After Meeting President Aoun
- Full support for President General Joseph Aoun in the path to protect Lebanon and restore the state to its full role.
- Support for direct negotiations with Israel — preserving Lebanon’s supreme interests, ensuring southern stability, and consecrating state sovereignty.
- A realistic approach away from slogans and escalatory bids that have brought Lebanon to its current crises.
- Full support for the government’s sovereign decisions that restore confidence of the Lebanese people and the international community.
- No authority supersedes the authority of the Lebanese state — the capital cannot regain its role except through legitimate security.
- Demand that Israel fully commit to any understandings reached and undertake gradual withdrawal from Lebanese territories.
- The enactment of a just and comprehensive general amnesty law has become a national and humanitarian necessity.
Beyond the seven points relayed by the Lebanese Presidency, Makhzoumi published his complete statement on X, providing far greater detail on each demand — from the suspension of Lebanon’s 1955 Boycott Law to the sequenced disarmament of the country region by region, beginning with Beirut and extending to the south, north, and Bekaa.
I would like, first and foremost, to affirm my full support for His Excellency President General Joseph Aoun in the path he is leading to protect Lebanon and restore the state to its full role, and to lead Lebanon toward a just and sustainable peace that preserves its sovereignty and the interests of its people.
Any serious approach to saving Lebanon requires courage in making decisions, wisdom in managing sensitive national files, and foremost among them the file of stability, security, and sovereignty. From this standpoint, we support the option of direct negotiations with Israel in a manner that preserves Lebanon’s supreme interests, ensures the stability of the south, and reestablishes the rights of the Lebanese state and its full sovereignty, far from the slogans and escalations that have brought us to where we are today, and in a way that opens the path to genuine and sustainable peace.
We also affirm our full support for the government and its decisions in every sovereign step that restores the confidence of the Lebanese people and the international community in the Lebanese state and its institutions. In this context, we call on the government to move forward with dismantling the parallel and illegitimate economy, closing institutions such as the “Al-Qard Al-Hassan,” preventing smuggling and illicit trade across all border crossings, ports, and the airport, in addition to restructuring the banking sector and financial system in a way that prevents the future financing and arming of militias by drying up their illegitimate financial sources.
We further see the necessity of suspending the operation of the Boycott Law issued in 1955, because its continued use as a tool of intimidation and coercion obstructs the trust-building measures required to achieve genuine and sustainable peace, and prevents Lebanon from advancing on the path of realistic solutions that preserve its supreme national interests.
I emphasize the urgency of expediting the implementation of the decision to make Beirut a safe and weapon-free city, under the authority of the state alone, as the delay in starting implementation is no longer justified and erodes the Lebanese people’s confidence in the state’s ability to enforce its decisions. The capital has been and will remain a symbol of life, openness, and freedom, and it cannot regain its role and reassure its people except through legitimate security and the entrenchment of a clear principle: no authority supersedes the authority of the Lebanese state.
Making Beirut weapon-free must be a sovereign Lebanese decision, fully implemented by the Lebanese state, because the capital cannot regain its natural role and its political, economic, and cultural symbolism except under the authority of the state alone. Hence, the success of this step in Beirut will open the way for a gradual transition to the south, then to the north and the Bekaa, thereby consolidating the Lebanese state’s authority over all its territories and enhancing comprehensive national stability.
In return, we demand that Israel fully commit to any understandings or arrangements reached, and undertake a gradual withdrawal from Lebanese territories, in a manner that ensures the consolidation of stability and respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty and the unity of its lands, leading to a fully sovereign Lebanese state free of any illegitimate or foreign military presence.
In parallel, we consider that the file of the general amnesty can no longer tolerate delay or politicization. The enactment of a just and comprehensive general amnesty law has become a national and humanitarian necessity, far from political bidding and tug-of-war.
What is required today is a balanced approach that preserves the rights of the wronged, takes into account the humanitarian conditions of the prisoners, and at the same time upholds the dignity of the military institution and maintains security and stability.
True justice is not selective, but comprehensive and balanced, protecting the homeland, preserving human dignity, and safeguarding the state’s institutions.
Lebanon needs today a strong state, genuine accountability, and responsible decisions that lead to peace and restore hope to the Lebanese people — and this is what we are working toward.
Among the most operationally specific demands in the full statement is Makhzoumi’s call to dismantle Al-Qard Al-Hassan — the Hezbollah-affiliated financial institution that functions as a shadow banking system — and to halt all smuggling through Lebanon’s border crossings, ports, and airport. He also calls for restructuring the banking sector specifically to prevent militia financing, a direct targeting of the economic arteries that have sustained Hezbollah’s military capacity for decades.
“The success of this step in Beirut will open the way for a gradual transition to the south, then to the north and the Bekaa, thereby consolidating the Lebanese state’s authority over all its territories.”
— MP Fouad Makhzoumi, Full Statement via @fmakhzoumiHis call to suspend the 1955 Boycott Law — which bars Lebanese entities from commercial dealings with Israel — is equally striking. Makhzoumi frames its removal not as normalization but as a prerequisite for the trust-building that any negotiated peace requires. The law, he argues, has become a tool of “intimidation and coercion” rather than a meaningful instrument of national policy.
The same week that Makhzoumi delivered his presidential statement and full sovereignty manifesto, a sobering incident underscored the stakes of Lebanon’s struggle for internal order: fellow MP Hadi Aboul Hassan (@HadiAboulHosn) was subjected to an armed assault while performing social duties in the town of Qabai.
For resorting to rogue weapons and violence to intimidate people or threaten stability is a dangerous and condemned matter by all standards, especially in this delicate phase where Lebanon needs calm and rational thinking.
The assault on a sitting parliamentarian carrying out community work was widely condemned. Makhzoumi called on both the security apparatus and the judiciary to act swiftly, and framed the incident as emblematic of a broader pathology: the persistence of “rogue weapons” outside state control that continue to menace Lebanese civil and political life.
In a separate and powerful statement, Makhzoumi invoked the anniversary of May 7, 2008 — the day Hezbollah turned its weapons on Beirut and Lebanese citizens — as a still-living wound on the Lebanese political body.
Makhzoumi on May 7 — via @fmakhzoumi
May 7th is the day when all masks fell. It is the day when Hezbollah used its weapons against Beirut and the Lebanese people, proving that weapons outside the state’s control do not protect a nation but destroy it from within. And since that day, May 7th has not left Lebanon. It continues in different forms: a collapsed state, paralyzed institutions, a capital being strangled, and southern villages left to occupation and destruction while Hezbollah insists on keeping its weapons above the state and the law.
Hezbollah’s weapons did not protect Lebanon; rather, they dragged it from one collapse to another, and opened the doors of Beirut, the South, and all of Lebanon to devastation and isolation.
“Hezbollah’s weapons did not protect Lebanon; rather, they dragged it from one collapse to another, and opened the doors of Beirut, the South, and all of Lebanon to devastation and isolation.”
— MP Fouad Makhzoumi (@fmakhzoumi)Makhzoumi’s posture drew support from across Lebanon’s sovereignty camp. MP Ziad El Khalil endorsed the stance directly, framing it as representing not just one politician but the aspirations of the Lebanese majority.
The alignment of multiple parliamentary voices around a single coherent message — state monopoly on force, realistic diplomacy, dismantling of the parallel economy, sequenced disarmament, no tolerance for extralegal violence — suggests that the sovereignty bloc in Lebanon is finding both language and momentum at a moment of unusual political opening.
Whether that opening translates into durable institutional change remains Lebanon’s defining challenge. But as Makhzoumi closed his full statement: “Lebanon needs today a strong state, genuine accountability, and responsible decisions that lead to peace and restore hope to the Lebanese people — and this is what we are working toward.”
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