BEIRUT — In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with This Is Beirut, Lebanese parliamentarian Fouad Makhzoumi offered one of the most unsparing analyses yet of Lebanon’s overlapping crises — from the structural power of its so-called “deep state” and Hezbollah’s desperate bid to halt peace negotiations, to what he called a historic public consensus forming around direct talks with Israel.

The interview, conducted by reporters Claudia Groeling and Kalina Antoun, covered the full spectrum of Lebanon’s strategic situation: Israeli military operations in the south, the threat from IRGC-linked operatives operating inside Lebanon, U.S. sanctions on Lebanese security officials, and the path toward a peace agreement with Israel that Makhzoumi argued is not merely desirable — but existentially necessary.

The Deep State: Warlords in Hermes Ties

Asked to define Lebanon’s “deep state,” Makhzoumi did not reach for euphemism. The system, he explained, was created as an amalgam of religious communities in which power was shared — but loyalty was never directed toward the Lebanese state. It was loyalty to the chief of each religious group, producing what he described as warlords who took the country to war in 1975, and then traded their military fatigues for business suits and entered parliament.

This ruling “club,” Makhzoumi argued, has maintained its grip by controlling the appointment of officers, judges, banks, and business — a self-reinforcing oligarchy whose primary interest is to ensure that loyalty remains to the sectarian leader, not to the state. And guarding that arrangement, he was explicit: Hezbollah serves as the military enforcer of the entire structure.

“It is a mafia that is protected by a militia,” Makhzoumi told This Is Beirut. “That is where Hezbollah comes in — to protect that mafia. So the deep state is deeply rooted.”

Yet he was not without a pathway to dismantling it. The answer, he said, is democratic — winning parliamentary majorities, electing a genuinely reformist government, and stripping the deep state of its ultimate trump card: the pretext of conflict with Israel. Once peace is signed, the justification for an armed militia protecting a sectarian power structure evaporates. The veto rights that have paralyzed Lebanese governance since 1949 lose their foundation.

Hezbollah’s Rhetoric: Desperation, Not Power

Makhzoumi addressed head-on the sharp language recently issued by Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem, who called for the overthrow of Lebanon’s democratically elected government and the reversal of the March 2, 2026 disarmament decision. His assessment was direct: this is not a demonstration of strength, but of weakness.

Pointing to a failed attempt roughly a month prior — when Hezbollah-aligned figures attempted to convene outside the Serail in Riyadh al-Solh in preparation for a change of government — Makhzoumi argued the episode revealed precisely how limited Hezbollah’s real leverage has become. “Nothing happened,” he noted. He reminded viewers that civil war requires two parties willing to fight outside the framework of the state. The majority of Lebanese, across sects, support the government and its negotiating path. Qassem’s threats, in his view, do not meet the threshold of a credible political programme.

A Historic Shift: Sunnis, Christians, Druze and the Consensus for Peace

One of the interview’s most striking passages concerned Makhzoumi’s reading of Lebanese public opinion — and what he sees as a genuinely historic political opening. He described a May 2 meeting at the Phoenicia Hotel, convened for the first time among approximately 15 Sunni MPs, whose final communiqué expressed unified support for the government, the president, and direct negotiations with Israel. “Historically, this has never happened,” he said.

That development was reinforced, he argued, by a statement from the Mufti issued just days before the interview, affirming support for direct negotiations with Israel — a remarkable moment given the religious and political weight the Mufti carries within Lebanon’s Sunni community.

Interview Highlights

The American Factor and Washington Negotiations

Makhzoumi offered warm credit to the current American administration, describing an “unprecedented” and “historic” level of US engagement with the Lebanese dossier. He singled out Ambassador Michelle Issa for personally elevating the Lebanon file from the State Department to the White House — an achievement, he said, that culminated in not one but two meetings in Washington, including a session at the Oval Office.

Upcoming diplomatic engagements, including a high-level political and diplomatic discussion on June 3 with Ambassador Simon Karam and Ambassador Nada Maalouf, represent, in his words, something Lebanon “never dreamed would ever happen.” And critically, he argued there is no going back — because Hezbollah also understands this, which explains the intensity of its current campaign to stop the process.

He was equally blunt about the IRGC infiltration question. On March 31, he formally put the question to the government through parliament, demanding full investigation of reports that IRGC-linked operatives had entered Lebanon with forged passports following the Syrian withdrawal. “We will insist — now, on your show — to demand that the government should do something about it,” he said directly to his interviewers. The stakes, he made clear, are not academic: IRGC operatives operating on Lebanese soil directly undermine every step the Lebanese president and government are taking in Washington.

Geography as Destiny: The Case for Peace

Makhzoumi closed with what amounted to a philosophical statement on Lebanon’s existential condition. The question, he said, is not whether peace is desirable in the abstract — it is whether Lebanon wishes to survive.

Israel and Syria are Lebanon’s neighbors. Geography is immovable. And the only path that leads to a Lebanon capable of surviving — and ultimately thriving — is a peace agreement that removes the pretext for armed groups, disbands Hezbollah’s military and financial apparatus, reforms the judiciary, secures the borders, and allows a genuinely reformist government to function without militia veto.

“We’ve broken the taboo,” Makhzoumi said. “Now we have to convert it into real action to achieve peace.”