MP Gebran Bassil speaking at the inauguration of a conference on the diaspora in Beirut, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Credit: Photo sent to L'Orient-Le Jour by the FPM)
The head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), MP Gebran Bassil, said during an interview with CNN on Wednesday night that the “fair” result of the ongoing negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, unprecedented since 1993, should be that Tel Aviv “obtains its right to security,” and that Beirut “recovers all of its rights.”
He also called for “including Hezbollah in a political process” to ensure that the party-militia becomes “a stakeholder in the Lebanese state.”
“A fair solution requires, on the one hand, for Israel to obtain its right to security and, on the other hand, for Lebanon to recover all its rights, particularly through the liberation of occupied Lebanese territories, the cessation of attacks, and allowing displaced Lebanese to return to their land,” said the former Hezbollah ally to the U.S. network, known for its proximity to the Democrats.
“Only then can discussions begin on establishing a solid and durable peace,” he continued, just days after expressing his “unconditional support” for the principle of negotiations with Israel in order “to end the war, restore Lebanon’s rights, and establish peace,” while also calling for the tactical use of this “card.”
Including Hezbollah in a political process
Bassil, who was still considering joining forces with Hezbollah for the parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2026 (which were ultimately postponed for two years), said it is necessary “to include Hezbollah in a political process encompassing the military, security, financial, and economic aspects, and to apply a certain amount of pressure for it to become a stakeholder in the Lebanese state’s decision-making, rather than taking over or dominating it.”
The Christian leader in this context called for protecting the country from “civil war,” emphasizing there is a “fundamental difference” between “wanting weapons to be exclusively in the hands of the state” and being “drawn into a civil war.” He also called for “convincing Hezbollah that Lebanon can be protected without its weapons.”
This could be achieved “through international decisions and guarantees, through defense agreements with foreign powers such as the United States, and through domestic consensus on a security strategy aimed at defending Lebanon and keeping it out of any conflict or axis in the region — whether Iranian or Israeli,” according to Bassil.
The “defense strategy” has long been used as a way to sidestep the issue of the militia’s weapons, according to critics.
More broadly, the MP for Batroun would like to “convince all Lebanese not to be subservient to any foreign power, but to form an independent state.” “We must do everything possible not to be subservient to an external power nor subject to the domination of any internal force, such as Hezbollah,” he reiterated.
Kanaan in Baabda
For his part, MP Ibrahim Kanaan (formerly of the FPM, which he left in August 2024) said, in the same spirit, following a meeting Thursday in the Baabda Presidential Palace with President Joseph Aoun, that “there will be neither war in service of foreign interests nor peace at the expense of sovereignty.” “The objective is singular: to protect Lebanon, its borders, its stability and its people,” he also stated, stressing that “war, given the current international and regional balance, does not serve Lebanon’s interests.”
He also noted that a “cease-fire constitutes an entryway for a new phase currently in preparation, as a prelude to a settlement that will not be far off,” alluding to the talks between Lebanon and Israel — which the latter wants as a prerequisite to peace between the two neighboring countries. “Lebanon is economically affected by the global situation, and at the end of this phase, the need for reforms will be imperative to restore the confidence of the Lebanese people, and the international community,” Kanaan added.
