U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ordered officials to calculate the damage Gulf states have suffered from Iranian attacks. The administration is weighing the use of frozen Iranian assets — estimated at roughly $115 billion in oil revenues held abroad — to compensate allies for past destruction and to pre-price future aggression.

Iran insists any agreement hinges on recovering $24 billion. Washington’s response is strategic: start deducting the bill.

This approach transforms sanctions into leverage and leverage into accountability. It converts abstract frozen funds into a live balance sheet of responsibility. Lebanon must ensure it is included in that calculation.

President Joseph Aoun told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour what many Lebanese officials avoided for years: Iran’s destructive role in Lebanon cannot continue. Hezbollah’s weapons have harmed the Lebanese state. Sovereignty must be restored. Lebanon cannot remain an arena for other people’s wars.

This is not political theatre. It is black-letter international law. The doctrine of State Responsibility — codified in the 2001 International Law Commission Articles — establishes that a state is responsible for internationally wrongful acts carried out by entities acting under its direction or control.

Under either standard, the evidentiary threshold regarding Hezbollah is met. The group was established in 1982 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It has received sustained annual funding estimated between $700 million and $1 billion. Iranian officers have been embedded within its operational structure. Its leadership has repeatedly declared allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei himself has publicly described leadership of what he calls the “Axis of Resistance.”

The damages inflicted on Lebanon exceed $150 billion over four decades. These are not theoretical figures — they can be audited, quantified, and substantiated by international accounting standards.

Lebanon must calculate retroactively across four decades. The harm did not begin yesterday, and it did not accumulate by accident. If Tehran speaks of billions it claims are owed to it, Lebanon must speak of billions systematically extracted from its stability, sovereignty, and future.

This requires structure, not slogans. Within 30 days, Lebanon’s government must act on multiple fronts simultaneously.

Iran today is weakened, economically strained, regionally exposed, and engaged in sensitive negotiations. Direct talks in Washington are underway under U.S. sponsorship. President Donald Trump has demonstrated unprecedented engagement in Lebanon’s stabilization, alongside senior officials including Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance.

Such alignment between Lebanese opportunity and international leverage has rarely existed in the post-1979 era. If Lebanon arrives prepared — armed with numbers, documentation, and a coherent legal claim — it can position itself within any structured arrangement involving Iranian assets.

Legal accountability is not only about compensation. It is about deterrence. It is about ensuring that aggression carries enforceable cost. Iran remains a present danger. Occupation remains a structural danger. Both have exacted a price from Lebanon that no donor conference can repair.

Lebanon does not need to beg. It possesses a right grounded in international law and paid for in blood, rubble, and lost opportunity.

But rights unused fade.