Hezbollah official launches diatribe against Aoun

BEIRUT — Former minister Mahmoud Qomati, a member of Hezbollah's political council, delivered a harsh diatribe Sunday against President Joseph Aoun, against the backdrop of direct negotiations with Israel in Washington, claiming that his "only concern is to serve the United States and Israel."

"The president wants to engage in direct negotiations with the Israeli enemy in a context of divisions among the Lebanese on this issue. We ask him: How can he allow himself to bypass a fundamental pillar of the state, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri? By what right does he decide alone the fate of Lebanon, without taking into account national unity, the constitution, the laws, dignity, the blood of martyrs and their sacrifices, with the sole concern of serving the United States and Israel?"

Qomati said during a ceremony in memory of the victims of the Israeli offensive in Bir Hassan, south Beirut suburb. Nabih Berri is also leader of the Shiite Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah, and has repeatedly advocated for indirect negotiations.

President Aoun, supported by the Lebanese government, has begun a process of direct negotiations with Israel under American sponsorship in Washington, in an effort to end the war that began March 2 with Hezbollah's opening of a support front for Iran without consulting the Lebanese state. This particularly destructive war has already resulted in nearly 2,800 deaths and unprecedented levels of destruction in southern Lebanon, not to mention the displacement of more than a million people and an Israeli occupation nearly 10 kilometers deep in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah, for its part, continues to fiercely resist Israel on the ground and opposes direct negotiations in the political arena, preferring that the Lebanese issue be included in the talks between Iran and the United States — the exact opposite of the efforts led by Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to separate the two tracks.

"The problem in Lebanon today is between two visions: ours, which knows well that the enemy is insatiable and will not stop its offensive ... and those who think that peace and an agreement are possible with this enemy, even though it violates all signed agreements," Qomati continued. For him, "there are ignorant people who do not understand the Israeli project, and accomplices who have never considered Lebanon a country for everyone."

"We advise the president not to engage in direct negotiations with the enemy, but to favor indirect talks. He would then hold his head high, strengthened by national consensus, and would not have to comply with Israeli and American agendas," he added.

A third round of direct negotiations between Lebanese and Israeli delegations is scheduled for May 14 and 15 in Washington. Consolidating a rather fragile cease-fire in Lebanon, Israeli withdrawal and the return of prisoners held in Israeli jails are among Lebanese demands. The Israelis continue to insist on Hezbollah's disarmament before any withdrawal.

Ali Fayad sees 'a desire to correct course'

A more measured position was expressed by MP Ali Fayad, from Hezbollah's bloc, who believes he has seen "in Presidents Aoun and Salam a willingness to correct course and draft a Lebanese position closer to national principles."

During a ceremony honoring Hezbollah dead in the village of Markaba, southern Lebanon, the MP called on Lebanese authorities to "choose realism over arrogance, and to take advantage of the strengths at their disposal by stopping the absurd targeting of the 'Resistance,' and by reopening channels of contact with Iran and correcting mistakes that were made against it."

Fayad was referring to Lebanese government decisions, since August 2025, in favor of the disarmament of militias, chiefly Hezbollah, a mission assigned to the army but rendered void since the opening of the new front with Israel.

This new war, attributed by Lebanese authorities to Iranian influence in Lebanon — since Hezbollah mentioned "revenge for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei" on Feb. 28 in Israeli strikes on Tehran — has led the Lebanese government to take a stand against that country's diplomatic representation, declaring its ambassador persona non grata in Lebanon. However, the diplomat has refused to leave the country.