We Are with the Government
and President Salam…
But He Is Not with Us.
Salam chose NBN — Berri’s own station — to address the nation. He offered no mention of peace, no vision for Lebanon’s future in a rapidly changing region, and no explicit naming of Iran as an occupier. Meanwhile, Berri reopens the electoral law file. The timing of both moves is not accidental. Elissa El Hachem examines both.
Throughout the interview, the word “peace” was not mentioned in its strategic sense even once, nor was any vision for Lebanon’s future in the new regional context presented. What we heard was a continuous justification — a defensive stance bordering on apology, directed at one internal faction and its external backer, which has inflicted more destruction on Lebanon than even Israel itself.
What he said matters. What he didn’t say is even more dangerous.
- “The restriction of weapons is something we agreed upon since 1989… and we are committed to it.” — Accurate, but after 36 years of non-implementation, it is an admission of failure, not a commitment.
- “We did not link the Israeli withdrawal to the process of collecting or surrendering weapons.” — This is the entire problem, in one sentence.
- “When Israel withdrew in 2000, why didn’t the army enter all the border areas?” — This blames the past for a present he himself is managing.
- “It may not be called UNIFIL, and it may have another form that has not yet been determined.” — After 50 years without preventing a war or disarming anyone, he requests a new version of the same experiment.
- “Certainly not… I would have formulated it differently and more clearly.” — A direct admission he is not convinced by a formula he is supposed to lead.
- Any mention of the actual Iranian presence on the ground — IRGC officers and commanders illegally active in Lebanon for forty years.
- Any reference to Iran as an occupying power to be confronted, not a partner to be negotiated with.
- Any vision for Lebanon’s place in the peace process its neighbors are engaging in one by one.
- A timetable demand for Hezbollah’s disarmament to match the demand for Israel’s withdrawal.
- Any word about why genuine peace — not a new UNIFIL — would eliminate the need for foreign buffer forces entirely.
“A one-sided timetable: he asked ‘When will Israel withdraw?’ — but never asked himself: When will Hezbollah disarm? And when will the Revolutionary Guard withdraw its officers from Lebanon?” — Elissa El Hachem · Al-Siyasa · Faith & Freedom News
Countries that have established real peace with their neighbors do not need buffer forces to manage their borders on their behalf. Requesting a “new formula” instead of seeking peace — which would eliminate the need for such a force in the first place — is not a technical proposal. It is an admission that Lebanon still prefers tutelage to determining its own destiny.
This interview contained not a word about Lebanon’s future in a rapidly changing environment, nor about its place in a peace process that its neighbors are engaging in one after another. It offered a defense of continued obstruction, and language that addressed the de facto occupier with the politeness of hospitality, not with the firmness of a president reclaiming his sovereignty.
If this is the speech of the Prime Minister at the most dangerous moment Lebanon has been going through in decades, then the question is simple and direct: Who is really speaking on our behalf?
Deputy Speaker Elias Abou Saab, at the behest of Speaker Nabih Berri, has reopened the file on the electoral law. The timing of this move raises an unavoidable question: Why now, specifically? The most likely answer: Berri is orchestrating a deal behind the scenes and needs to distract the Lebanese people from it with an issue that guarantees him complete control over the timing and course of events.
Before discussing anything else — especially the electoral law — three facts must be stated clearly. There will be no free election in Lebanon before its most crucial national requirements are met.
Any election held while an armed militia controls political and security decisions is not a free election but a charade of democracy imposed on a usurped reality. No ballot box before the weapons box is closed.
There will be no parliamentary elections under conditions that allow for the reproduction of the deep state and the same ruling system. This system, in all its aspects, is no longer part of the post-war landscape or the emerging era of peace in the region.
There can be no parliamentary elections before the necessary political, economic, financial, and security conditions are in place for engaging in the peace process and the Abraham Accords. Elections today will only produce a repetition of the same names, the same compromises, and the same stagnation.
All political forces are ignoring the real danger: the war has not stopped; it continues and is likely to escalate again, according to all available information. This has been documented in repeated statements by Western diplomats — most notably US Ambassador Michael Issa — who have not ceased warning the Lebanese state about what is to come.
From Nabatieh to Jezzine, Jabal Safi and Rihan, all the way to Baalbek and the southern suburbs of Beirut — all fall within this context: a war that hasn’t truly ended, but is merely taking a temporary respite, awaiting the next spark. Yet, we haven’t heard a single serious word from Berri on this matter.
The regime in Iran is heading towards collapse, and whatever befalls it will inevitably affect its proxies, foremost among them Hezbollah. Berri — the shrewd, intelligent, fox-like figure according to his admirers — understands exactly what that means. Is he ignoring all of this, or is he secretly plotting to inherit the party when its official demise is declared?
“The complete and final disarmament of Hezbollah and expulsion of the IRGC from Lebanese territory. Long-awaited financial reforms to restore confidence in the state. And a clear Lebanese proposal for a peace agreement with Israel — based on full peace linked to normalization, not a temporary truce or piecemeal security arrangements.”
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