BEIRUT: Anxiety is rising in Lebanon after statements by Israeli officials and Hezbollah figures over the past 48 hours signaled the possibility of a new war between the two sides.
President Joseph Aoun said on Thursday that regional and international developments, as well as Israel’s elections, may have slowed the pace of direct Lebanese-Israeli talks mediated by the US, but “this does not mean they have stopped.”
The tone of Israeli threats against Lebanon has escalated in recent days, as has Hezbollah’s rhetoric in challenging both the Lebanese state and Israel.
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah warned the Lebanese authorities on Thursday against “persisting with measures taken against the resistance,” urging them to “reverse those measures and address their risks.”
His remarks followed the seizure late last week of a car at a checkpoint in Dahr Al-Baidar, which links Beirut to the Bekaa Valley. The vehicle was carrying about 800 kilograms of C-4 and TNT, and two Hezbollah members transporting the explosives to Beirut’s southern suburbs were detained.
In a rare public acknowledgement, Fadlallah said the car belonged to the group and that the seized materials were intended for use against the Israeli occupation. He said an attempt had been made to handle the matter away from media or political disputes to avoid giving Israel an opportunity to exploit them.
He stressed that “the resistance’s weapons are directed at the Israeli enemy,” particularly explosive devices, which he described as effective weapons against it. He warned the Lebanese authorities against “persisting with their measures,” calling on them to “quickly address the risks and reverse them.”
Fadlallah also reiterated Hezbollah’s rejection of government decisions against the group’s weapons, saying they had “no effect on the ground” and aligned with Israeli and American demands that would “destroy the country.”
Justice Minister Adel Nassar said that “any action outside the framework of the Lebanese state is rejected.” He said investigations into the seized car would take all positions into account to identify those who incited the operation and owned the explosives, adding that there was no intention to delay the probe.
The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, did not decide to refer the Dahr Al-Baidar explosives case to the Judicial Council. Information Minister Paul Morcos said Justice Minister Adel Nassar had submitted a draft decree to refer the case, but it had not yet reached the ministers’ table.
MP Ashraf Rifi said Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence of national decision-making were “not subject to bargaining or negotiation.”
Responding to Fadlallah, Rifi told Arab News: “A project that drags Lebanon into wars, places its national decision outside its legitimate institutions and exposes its people and resources to risks that do not serve its interests cannot acquire the label of patriotism simply by wrapping it in resistance slogans.
Lebanon has made placing the decision of war and peace solely in the hands of the state and its institutions a central goal in its effort to curb Hezbollah’s influence and bring the group’s weapons under state authority.
“The resistance must not become a pretext for bypassing the state or confiscating the will of the Lebanese,” said Rifi, adding that Lebanon was “not an arena for settling regional scores, nor a card in the hands of any external axis.”
A senior Lebanese official told Arab News: “The positions expressed by Hezbollah remain within the media sphere, and we do not respond to them.”
Asked whether Hezbollah could recover the seized explosives shipment, the official said: “The matter is now with the judiciary. The circumstances that accompanied the seizure of an ammunition shipment on the Kahale road in August 2023 are no longer the same.”
He added that the Lebanese Army had not handed over the ammunition seized from the overturned truck at the Kahale bend at the time, and “will not hand over the Dahr Al-Baidar shipment now.”
Hezbollah’s statements rejecting the handover of weapons and insisting on the continuation of the resistance followed a sharp escalation in Israeli rhetoric. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Wednesday that, if Hezbollah joined Iran in an attack on Israel, it would lose additional territory in southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs would be evacuated and struck, and “more than one million Shiites will become displaced in Lebanon.”
Israeli media reported that the security zone controlled by the military in southern Lebanon covers about 700 square kilometers. More than 60 villages in the zone have been largely levelled, except for three Christian villages, according to the reports. About 23,000 homes in villages under Israeli military control have been destroyed, while about 200,000 residents of the security zone remain displaced.
This political tension coincided with remarks by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh in Beirut on Thursday, after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at Ain El-Tineh. He questioned the value of Lebanese-Israeli negotiations, saying the chances of reaching political understandings had become “almost nonexistent” and that the region faced a phase requiring preparation for the worst scenarios.
Khatibzadeh reaffirmed Tehran’s support for Hezbollah’s weapons, linking the group’s continued existence to Israel’s continued occupation of Lebanese territory.
Neither the presidential palace nor the prime minister’s office had scheduled meetings between the Iranian official and Aoun or Salam.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to call Aoun in the evening. The presidential palace’s media office told Arab News that the call would take place, but that it did not yet know which issues the US secretary would focus on.