The Member of Parliament Mohammad Raad speaking from Baabda, Monday, May 26, 2025. (Credit: NNA.)
Leader of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, suggested on Monday, after a discussion with the President of the Republic Joseph Aoun, that his party was willing to discuss all issues with Aoun, without excluding its potential disarmament from the debate.
"There are no closed doors to dialogue and the exchange of ideas with the president of the Republic, at any level, and the doors will remain open," he said following a meeting with the head of state in Baabda. Raad made this visit accompanied by other deputies from his bloc to convey to the head of state the "wishes [of the party] on the occasion of the Resistance and Liberation Day that we have been celebrating for 25 years," marking the 2000 Israeli withdrawal from territories that the Israeli state had already occupied in southern Lebanon.
"We exchanged our views on the challenges and priorities, among which are the preservation of national sovereignty, the end of the occupation, and the cessation of Israeli aggression," he further stated, referring to the fact that the Israeli army still occupies five positions in southern Lebanon and bombards Lebanese territory daily. "The space for agreement with the president is wide and promising, and we do not feel constrained by time, place, or methods, as long as things progress," he added.
From Baabda, Raad also deplored the behavior of certain states guaranteeing the cease-fire, the reconstruction of destructions caused by the aggression, the maintenance of stability, and the functioning of institutions through electoral deadlines, such as the recently held municipal and mokhtar elections.
On the subject of Iranian-American negotiations and their influence on Lebanon, he stated: "It is supposed that we approach the Lebanese issue independently of developments in other countries. There is no doubt that everything is connected [...] But at the level of concrete decisions, each country has its sovereignty, its authorities, and its representatives who determine its interest and that of its people."
Finally, when questioned about Nawaf Salam's statement that "the era of exporting the Iranian revolution is over" and that "no armament outside the state's authority will be tolerated," Mohammad Raad said he preferred "not to comment on this statement, out of concern for preserving what remains of a friendly link" with the head of government. These remarks, which were attributed to the prime minister in an interview given to Sky News Arabia, were not included in the transcript of the interview by the concerned media but were reported by al-Nashra.
Earlier in the day, Raad visited Ain al-Tineh to meet with the president of parliament Nabih Berri, leader of Amal, Hezbollah's ally and the party's de facto mediator on the issue of disarmament.
After the meeting, Raad spoke about the municipal elections, stating that the victories won by the Amal-Hezbollah alliance "testify to our people's commitment to the choice of resistance and development." The day before, Hezbollah's Secretary General Naim Kassem had emphasized in a speech the "strategic and unwavering" alliance between the Shiite parties and praised the inhabitants of southern Lebanon for their participation in the elections.