Former Lebanese minister and leader of the Tawhid Party, Wi'am Wahhab. (Photo from Kataeb.org)
Former Lebanese minister and head of the Tawhid Party, Wiam Wahhab, known for his controversial statements during televised interviews, called on Sunday evening for normalization with Israel, stating his willingness to "deal with the devil" to ensure the protection of his Druze community.
“The Lebanese have sacrificed more than 75 years of their lives for the Palestinian cause. This must come to an end,” Wahhab declared during an interview with local channel al-Jadeed, adding that “the nation does not want war and no longer wishes to fight the Israeli state.”
“We must permanently abandon this mentality of war with Israel,” said Wahhab, typically seen as aligned with the Iranian axis, urging a “realistic” view of the current situation. When host Georges Salibi noted that such remarks contradict Lebanon's political history of over 70 years, the former minister responded that “we must abandon these illusions. We want to live comfortably.” According to him, “the only victor in the region is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who continues to reshape the Middle East.”
“The Lebanon front has paid a heavy price since Hezbollah opened a support front for Gaza,” Wahhab added, referring to Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. A 60-day cease-fire implemented on Nov.27 in Lebanon ended more than a year of cross-border hostilities and two months of open war between the Israeli army and the pro-Iranian group.
The Fall of the Assad Regime
In the context of significant upheavals in Syria, marked by the overthrow of the Assad regime following a swift offensive launched on Nov. 27 that allowed the Islamist-led rebel coalition to take control of the country, Wahhab stated that “the identity of the Syrian leader is irrelevant as long as Syria is at peace. The situation in the neighboring country directly impacts us.” He assured that “the Lebanese army is capable of protecting Lebanon and its borders, and Syria's political crisis should not be imported to Lebanon.”
Long known for his closeness to ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Wahhab justified his relationship with the regime, which presented itself as “the protector of minorities, including the Druze community,” of which he himself is a member, in a predominantly Sunni Muslim country. While “the Syrian Druze population is estimated at 800,000 people,” he expressed his willingness to “talk with the devil” to preserve “his tribe,” which represents about 3% of Syria's population.
The politician further accused Bashar al-Assad of being a “traitor and a coward,” following his escape from Syria and the transfer of a massive sum of $130 billion to Moscow, thereby abandoning his people and supporters.
What has become of Assad? “Spending his days in his residence in Russia with his wife and mother-in-law. He should have died a martyr, resisting to the end. At least, in the eyes of the world, he would have had a different image, like the sons of Saddam Hussein (two of whom were killed by the U.S. military in Mosul in 2003),” Wahhab said.
