State-Hezbollah security committee: Is ‘the open secret’ finally exposed?

“I call on the state to dissolve the joint security committee between the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah,” said Kataeb Party Leader Samy Gemayel during a press briefing on Thursday at his party’s headquarters in Saifi. Less than 24 hours later, President Joseph Aoun responded to these statements. “This committee does not exist, and I am personally in contact with Hezbollah regarding [the monopoly on] weapons,” he said on Friday to a Press Club delegation. Several sources said this committee is none other than the infamous liaison and coordination unit within Hezbollah, which has been headed for years by Wafiq Safa, a senior security official in Hezbollah.  Profile Wafiq Safa, Hezbollah's ‘man of special missions,’ in Israel's crosshairs Nevertheless, behind the president’s stance lies his intention to assert himself as...