Ali al-Khatib, speaking from Sohmor during a ceremony in honor of a Hezbollah official killed on June 30, 2024. (Credit: NNA)
The vice-president of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council, Ali al-Khatib, launched a violent diatribe Sunday against individuals and groups he described as "detractors of the resistance."
"They want to justify their failure to build a genuine state, when it was their responsibility to do so," Khatib said, accusing these so-called "detractors" of "failing to equip the army with the necessary equipment and leaving south Lebanon and the Western Bekaa defenseless in the face of the Israeli enemy."
Many political figures and groups in Lebanon, including the Lebanese Forces, regularly accuse Hezbollah of having created a mini-state within the Lebanese state, of being the de-facto decision-maker on war and peace in the country, and of preventing the building of a functional state. These criticisms of the Shiite party have been amplified since the start of the war in Gaza, with many political parties believing that Lebanon should not have become involved.
"If a state had been well built, we wouldn't have needed to defend south Lebanon," Khatib argued, speaking from the village of Sohmor (West Bekaa) where he was taking part in a ceremony in honor of Hezbollah official Ali Alaaddine, who was killed on June 28 in that region.
"The resistance was not created at the expense of the state and its institutions, it is neither a state nor a mini-state as some people like to call it, it represents the spirit of the people who are exposed to Israeli aggression," he added.
According to the Khatib, "during the liberation [of southern Lebanon from Israeli-occupation] in 2000, the inhabitants of the region invited Lebanon's public institutions to come and do their duty" but to no avail.
"Some people take advantage of our principles and our generosity, and hurl accusations at us that we should return to them today. Our silence explains their audacity. They blame the resistance for the absence of the state, when in fact it is the expression of their own failure," Khatib concluded.
Meanwhile, speaking from Minyara in Akkar, northern Lebanon, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, an ally of Hezbollah, said Sunday that he is "against any policy that leads to war."
"It is true that we are all working in Lebanon to prevent war, but that does not mean that we are ready to declare ourselves defeated," he continued. He added, "Whether there is war or not, Lebanon will emerge victorious, even if the price will be high."
This article was originally published in French on L'Orient-Le Jour.