The Jaafarite Mufti Ahmad Kabalan. (Credit: NNA.)
BEIRUT — Jaafari Mufti Ahmad Qabalan, responded sharply Wednesday to Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai, telling him that “no force on earth can take away Hezbollah’s weapons because its weapons and those of the Amal Movement are the weapons of God.”
The cleric’s statement was published a day after a fierce diatribe by Bishop Rai against Hezbollah. “Hezbollah has emptied resistance of its true meaning, resistance is not about submitting to the dictates of Iran,” the head of the Maronite Church said Tuesday in an interview with Al-Arabiya, inviting “Hezbollah to reflect on its ‘Lebaneseness.’”
“We ourselves, our very existence, and all our capabilities are mobilized to defend Lebanon. We are a force that God has endowed with historic sacrifices and national victories despite being struck,” wrote Qabalan, who stressed that Hezbollah “has not been defeated and will not be defeated,” referring to the recent war waged by the Shiite militia against Israel.
Triggered on Oct.8, 2023, in support of Hamas in Gaza, the initially low-level conflict became open in autumn 2024, with the Israeli army massively bombing South Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs, and the Bekaa, eliminating high-ranking Hezbollah officials, including its secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, and largely destroying its arsenal. Despite a cease-fire on Nov. 27, 2024, the Israeli state continues to carry out targeted assassinations in South Lebanon, taking civilian lives in the process.
The Shiite community has had enough of capitulation
Mufti Qabalan argued that “the monopoly on weapons in the hands of the state has failed because of the American proposal. It exposes Lebanon, its people, and its sovereign and national interests amid a weak state that does nothing but tally strikes from its empty offices,” insisted the cleric close to Hezbollah.
“If modern Lebanon has a historical legacy, it is indeed the one handed down to it by the Amal Movement, Hezbollah, and other resistance forces that defeated Israel and snatched the Lebanese state, its institutions, and its various sectors from the clutches of Israel the day it was occupied,” emphasized Ahmed Qabalan, alluding to Israel’s occupation of South Lebanon between 1978 and 2000. The mufti thus assured that Hezbollah “will not allow Zionism to reoccupy Lebanon” because “the Shiite community has had enough of capitulation, betrayal, and false testimony.”
“It was Iran that destroyed the Middle East project and shattered the hopes of Washington and Tel Aviv, who live off terrorism, occupation, and destruction, and who failed in their dream of a Greater Israel,” the cleric added. “What we have accomplished in this war exceeds the capabilities of an entire army,” Qabalan said, concluding that “the decision of peace or war is a matter of national sovereignty.”
