Bassil: 'Anyone who thinks he can control the Lebanese and defeat Israel is deluding himself'

The leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), Gebran Bassil, said on Friday evening during an iftar speech in Jbeil that anyone who "thinks he can control the Lebanese and defeat Israel is deluding himself."

Bassil's comments come almost six months into deadly cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel in south Lebanon — a conflict that broke out following Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel's subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper published on Friday, Bassil is quoted as saying Hezbollah has "lost the power to decide to stop the war" with Israel.

For months, the alliance between the FPM and Hezbollah has been put to the test, in particular because of the latter's support for the leader of the Marada movement, Sleiman Frangieh, in Lebanon's presidential election. And since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah entered its latest exchange of fire with Israel, the leader of the FPM has not missed an opportunity to criticize its ally for igniting a conflict front in southern Lebanon.

Independence from war

"If Israel has the opportunity to do to the Lebanese what it does to the Palestinians, it will not miss it. The Resistance is one of Lebanon's strong points, alongside the army, the people and the partnership [between parties]. If we can preserve all these elements, we will be able to stand up to Israel," said the MP for Batroun. "We cannot confront Israel if we are divided over essential principles … Anyone who thinks he can control the Lebanese and wants to defeat Israel at the same time is deluding himself," he said.

Bassil reiterated his call to no longer tie internal Lebanese issues to the fate of the ongoing conflict. "We are not obliged to remain dependent on the war in Gaza, especially as we do not know when it will end, or foresee its repercussions and consequences for Lebanon," Bassil said.

The presidential election

Bassil also called for the election of a new president. Lebanon has been without a head of state since the end of Michel Aoun's term of office in October 2022, due to a lack of consensus on a candidate.

"In view of the current situation on the border and the war going on there, our priority should be to elect a president, not to wait for the war in Gaza and then in the south to end before thinking about it," Bassil said. He concluded: "There will be no major settlement soon, and no clear winner in the ongoing war, and any delay will cost us dearly."

In his interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper, Bassil also called on Friday for "a plan of action and implementation" of the Bkirki document, a text from the Maronite patriarchate that aims to summarize the unified vision of Christians in the face of the challenges facing Lebanon.