Bassil calls on Hezbollah to 'submit' to the state, while denouncing the authorities' inaction in the face of Israel

BEIRUT — Free Patriotic Movement (FPM, Aounist) leader Gebran Bassil called on Hezbollah to “submit” to the state while accusing authorities of “folding their arms in the face of Israeli crimes,” referring to Article 13 of the framework agreement signed on June 26 in Washington, which covers Lebanon’s renunciation of legal action against Israel.

"We want the state to be the negotiator, to exercise exclusive control over decision-making and arms, and for Hezbollah to submit to it. But we don't want [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu to repeat after every action he undertakes that the Lebanese state covered for us," the FPM leader said in a video posted Tuesday night on social media.

"In this case, where is the decision? It is in the hands of Israel and Iran, not Lebanon. This is not how decisions should be made," he added. "We feel a danger greater than that of war when we see incompetent authorities who fold their arms before these crimes, and have even deprived themselves of the right to complain about them," Bassil said, adding that the NGOs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had protested this clause, but "the authorities remained unmoved."

"Is there an authority that refuses a victim its right to legal recourse, abandons a ceasefire agreement and UN Resolution 1701, as well as its allies on the five-member committee, only to then accept a framework agreement with a state it is still at war with?" Bassil added.

Article 13 of the agreement, which states that both countries commit to "halt all hostile or harmful acts in international political or legal forums" against each other, has sparked intense controversy among political and legal circles. Critics have denounced the provision, arguing that it deprives the Lebanese state of its right to bring legal action against Israel before international courts over alleged war crimes and violations of international law committed in Lebanon since the start of the war in October 2023.

The FPM leader also warned against “putting the army in confrontation with part of the population and giving Israel the right to dictate its conditions, allowing it to act, kill, destroy and make decisions regarding a potential redeployment after establishing the security arrangements it would impose on us.”