Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri welcoming Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at Ain al-Tineh, on May 22, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L’Orient-Le Jour)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas continued Thursday — on the second day of his official visit to Lebanon — his tour of officials, including Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. The Palestinian president's visit focuses on the issue of disarming Palestinian camps, as Beirut seeks to extend its authority over the entire territory. Following a meeting with President Joseph Aoun on Wednesday, the two men stated in a joint statement that "the era of weapons escaping the authority of the Lebanese state is over" but did not provide details on the modalities of disarming the camps.
Concrete measures?
Having been formally welcomed at Ain al-Tineh and after meeting with the head of the legislature, Abbas left without making a statement. He then proceeded to the Grand Serail, where he was received by Salam. In a ceremony honoring Abbas, Salam praised that the latter had rejected the militarization of Palestinian camps in Lebanon "outside any national legitimacy." "In Lebanon, he adopted a responsible approach, affirming respect for Lebanese sovereignty, rejecting the transformation of camps into places of conflict or means of pressure and rejecting the militarization of camps outside any national legitimacy," Salam emphasized.
He also believed Abbas "ensured that the Palestinian presence in Lebanon is an element of stability and not of tension and sought to strengthen the refugee community and not involve it in conflicts in which it has no interest." According to our information, Abbas reaffirmed to his interlocutors his commitment to Lebanese sovereignty, which should extend over the entire territory, including Palestinian refugee camps. He also wished for improved living conditions in these camps. A security committee, including Director General of General Security Hussein Choucair, Director of Intelligence Tony Qahwaji and Chairman of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, Ramez Dimashkieh, is expected to be established. It will be responsible for launching the process of withdrawing weapons from the camps. Abbas is expected to meet on Thursday with Azzam al-Ahmad, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as several Palestinian officials, to establish an implementation plan.
No more excuses for 'moumanaa' weapons
Commenting on Abbas's visit, Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea praised in a statement that the president of the Palestinian Authority is "the first Arab president to visit Lebanon under the new mandate" of Aoun and his "crystal clear position on the issue of Palestinian weapons." According to the LF leader, Abbas affirmed and repeated, "that there is no necessity for the presence of Palestinian weapons in Lebanon, neither inside nor outside the camps. It is a position that many Lebanese officials, unfortunately, avoid expressing with such clarity and frankness," he indicated.
According to him, these statements by the Palestinian president "nullify the pretexts used by the moumanaa groups, both Lebanese and Palestinian, to continue holding illegal weapons," he added, alluding to pro-Iranian parties and militias. In this context, the Lebanese government "must establish without dithering a specific timeline, not exceeding a few weeks, to take the necessary concrete measures to collect Palestinian weapons inside and outside the camps, in order to gather all illegal weapons present in Lebanon and dissolve illegal military formations," he reiterated.
This article was translated from L'Orient-Le Jour.
