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Geagea: No to Hezbollah's defeat, but also no to its hegemony

The leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) no longer rules out running for president, subject to certain conditions. 

Geagea: No to Hezbollah's defeat, but also no to its hegemony

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea during an interview with MTV, Oct. 14, 2024. (Credit: Samir Geagea's X account)

Two days after the Maarab meeting, Samir Geagea changed his tone. After launching a new phase in his political battle against Hezbollah by calling for the application of Security Council Resolution 1559 (2004) (which requires the disarmament of militias), a text which the party does not want to hear about, the leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) winked at his adversary in an interview with local channel MTV on Monday.

He said he did not wish to see Hezbollah defeated or isolated at the end of the war. But at the same time, the man who wants to set himself up as the leader of the opposition is ready to do anything to counter what he calls “Hezbollah's hegemony over the country,” even to the point of putting his own candidacy for the Lebanese presidency back on the table. But Geagea knows that such a move will not bear fruit.

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“I don't want Hezbollah to emerge defeated from the current war. And we don't want the Shiite community to be broken,” the LF leader declared at the outset, before explaining, ”We want it to reintegrate the Lebanese framework, its interest being linked to that of the country.” “I have never bet on Israel,” added Geagea, in a response to accusations leveled against him of betting on the ongoing war to see Hezbollah weakened. “I have never looked at [the question of] Hezbollah from the angle of its arsenal. What brought the country to where it is today is that nobody stood up to it politically,” declared Geagea. This was his way of criticizing, for the umpteenth time, Hezbollah's unilateral decision to drag Lebanon into the war as a support front.

'Divergent approaches'

The head of the LF says he has only one priority: To achieve a cease-fire through the roadmap announced at the end of the Maarab meeting, held last Saturday in the absence of the opposition leaders, who had nevertheless sent representatives. In broad terms, the document calls for the implementation of Resolution 1701 (2006) and, above all, 1559. In addition to the opposition heavyweights, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) was absent from the event: A decision that Geagea explained on Monday by “divergent approaches” to the current crisis between Maarab and Moukhtara. “We sent [Druze leader] Walid Joumblatt a draft statement. But he said the tone is too high for him,” revealed the LF leader. This information was confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour by Joumblatt deputy Marwan Hamadeh, Moukhtara's way of showing his approval of the text in substance, without endorsing its form.

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“What's important to us is to keep the Shiites [through Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri] at the heart of the process that should lead to a cease-fire and the implementation of 1701 and the presidential election, as provided for in the Ain al-Tineh statement,” explained Hamadeh, referring to the text published at the end of the tripartite meeting held on Oct. 2 between the head of the legislature, the outgoing Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, and the former leader of the PSP. “It's true that the Ain al-Tineh statement subtly refers to [Resolution] 1559. But we don't want to highlight it at the moment,” added the deputy.

Turning to the issue of the presidential election, the LF leader spoke for the first time of the possibility of entering the race for Baabda. “If a group of deputies, notably from the Democratic Rally [Joumblattist] and the National Moderation [mostly Sunni ex-Haririans] supported my candidacy, I'd be ready,” he said. For the Joumblattists in particular, the time has come to elect a consensual figure to head the state. In this context, Geagea reiterated his call for the election of a president committed to the implementation of Resolutions 1701 and 1559, asserting that he had “no problem if all the players agree on such a candidate.”

The option of a third-way candidate has been associated for several months with the army's Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Aoun, a name that the LF leader was one of the first to propose as a consensus figure. But this does not mean that he is prepared to blindly endorse this option. “We put forward Joseph Aoun's name in view of his record as head of the army,” he said. “But if he wants to stand as a candidate, we need to meet with him and get an idea of his political program before voting for him,” added the LF leader, in a clear attempt to sound out the army chief's political intentions.

This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour. 

Two days after the Maarab meeting, Samir Geagea changed his tone. After launching a new phase in his political battle against Hezbollah by calling for the application of Security Council Resolution 1559 (2004) (which requires the disarmament of militias), a text which the party does not want to hear about, the leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) winked at his adversary in an interview with local...