Walid Joumblatt at Clemenceau on Aug. 27, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L’Orient-Le Jour)
Amid the sharp political polarization surrounding Hezbollah since the Cabinet’s Aug. 5 decision to enshrine the state’s monopoly over arms, former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt is striving to strike a balance: while he supports the implementation of the government’s resolution, his foremost concern is sparing the country a confrontation between the army and a large segment of the Lebanese population. This, even if it means altering the government’s chosen approach and replacing it with a dialogue among the Lebanese. Joumblatt made this stance clear to the American delegation he met on Tuesday in Clemenceau. How do you interpret Washington’s position as expressed Tuesday by its delegation in Beirut? Do you see it as a hardening of tone, or simply a reminder of the terms of the cease-fire agreement approved by the...
Amid the sharp political polarization surrounding Hezbollah since the Cabinet’s Aug. 5 decision to enshrine the state’s monopoly over arms, former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt is striving to strike a balance: while he supports the implementation of the government’s resolution, his foremost concern is sparing the country a confrontation between the army and a large segment of the Lebanese population. This, even if it means altering the government’s chosen approach and replacing it with a dialogue among the Lebanese. Joumblatt made this stance clear to the American delegation he met on Tuesday in Clemenceau. How do you interpret Washington’s position as expressed Tuesday by its delegation in Beirut? Do you see it as a hardening of tone, or simply a reminder of the terms of the cease-fire agreement approved...
