This photograph, taken from the village of Shaqra in southern Lebanon, shows Israeli army D9 armored bulldozers conducting clearing operations in a wooded area near the entrance to the village of Houla, in the Wadi Slouqi sector, on Aug. 4, 2026. (Credit: Ali Ezzedine/AFP)
BEIRUT — Sunni MP from Tripoli, Ashraf Rifi, once again lashed out at Hezbollah on Wednesday, following a bitter exchange the day before between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Hezbollah secretary-general Naim Qassem, through exchanged statements in which they accused each other of facilitating Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon.
"The time of illusions is over. It is now time for Hezbollah to recognize the failure of its project and return the decision-making power to the Lebanese state, the only legitimate holder of the authority to decide on war and peace, in order to protect Lebanon and the future of its children," the MP said, defending the prime minister’s stance.
The latter had written Tuesday on X that "the greatest service rendered to Israel was by those who unilaterally dragged Lebanon into the absurd war adventures of the so-called 'support front,' providing it with pretexts to attack our country, trample on its sovereignty, destroy its towns and villages, kill its inhabitants, and displace hundreds of thousands."
Earlier Tuesday, Qassem had criticized the Lebanese state in a speech, accusing it of "serving Israel" rather than "the sovereignty of Lebanon" by holding direct negotiations with Tel Aviv and supporting the buffer zones project, even as the Israeli army has completely destroyed at least 24 villages in southern Lebanon, according to its defense minister, Israel Katz, and continues to occupy and demolish part of the territory.
"Three support wars, three doomed adventures, and three heavy tributes paid by Lebanon and the Lebanese. That is the true record of Hezbollah’s project, no matter how much Naim Qassem tries to distort reality or sell illusions," Rifi continued.
"Support for the Bashar al-Assad regime ended with the fall of that very regime, which Hezbollah had defended at the cost of engaging thousands of Lebanese in a war that did nothing to serve Lebanon’s interests. Support for Gaza resulted in the destruction of the South, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the Bekaa, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, and a further deepening of the country’s economic collapse and political isolation. As for support for Iran, it ended — by Naim Qassem’s own admission — with the acknowledgment that the decision to go to war or end it was not Lebanese, but Iranian, thus clearly recognizing that Lebanon was only a bargaining chip in the hands of the Iranian regime," he added.
