Joumblatt and Geagea take aim at Hezbollah's weapons

BEIRUT – Progressive Socialist Party head Walid Joumblatt and Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea spoke out against Hezbollah’s weapons and discussed Parliamentary election results during interviews Saturday.

Here’s what we know:

    • Progressive Socialist Party head Walid Joumblatt said Saturday “there will be no reforms without sovereignty,” a subtle jab at Hezbollah’s non-state weapons, during an interview with news site Independent Arabia. “We can no longer accept the slogan ‘army, people, resistance,’” Joumblatt added, rejecting the trinity repeated by Hezbollah supporters and calling for a defense strategy that does away with Hezbollah’s non-state weapons.

    • The PSP head also criticized a statement made by Hezbollah MP Mohamad Raad earlier this week that the party would be willing to accept LF and opposition party deputies as “rivals, but not as shields protecting Israel,” adding a warning to not “fan the flames of civil war.”

    • Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea said Saturday that “no one should be allowed to use their weapons in the country,” adding that “security and military matters should be handled exclusively by the Lebanese army,” during an interview with news agency Agence France-Presse.

    • Friday, Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah urged the new Parliament to procrastinate the discussion of his party’s non-state weapons, claiming that there were more pressing issues, such as the economic crisis, to be addressed. The party and its allies are widely considered to have lost their parliamentary majority in the elections, with results favoring the Lebanese Forces and opposition movements.

    • Joumblatt commented on the parliamentary election results, saying that a portion of the Druze vote going to opposition parties “is not a problem” for him, noting that his supporters “did not betray him”, and Darwiniously adding, “those who cannot adapt will lose.” The PSP obtained nine seats in the 2022 elections, one less than what they had secured four years prior.

    • “We can't nominate Berri at all because he is aligned with the other team,” Geagea said regarding the position of Parliament Speaker, which Nabih Berri, who heads the Amal Movement allied with Hezbollah, has held for around 30 years. Geagea claimed to be in “intensive talks” with opposition movement MPs and rejected plans for a “national unity” cabinet.

    • Geagea said that, given a successful cabinet is formed, “ties with Gulf Arab states will certainly be restored and Gulf aid will gradually flow to Lebanon.”

    • “Saudi Arabia has politically stood by [the PSP] and others,” Joumblatt claimed. The PSP leader also said that while “he does not completely agree” with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who announced his withdrawal from political life earlier this year, he still shares with him “a personal friendship.” 

CORRECTION: Due to a typographical error, an earlier version of this post stated that Nabih Berri has held the position of Parliament speaker for around 80 years. The correct figure is 30 years. We regret the error.