Heavy machinery, first aid responders, and residents search the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighborhood in the southern Lebanese village of Deir Zahrani on Aug. 15, 2026. (Credit: Abbas Fakih/AFP)
SOUTH LEBANON — The president of the Maronite League, Maroun Helou, stated that "Lebanon cannot remain a prisoner of an open war equation, trapped between Israeli violations in the villages and towns of the South and Hezbollah’s intransigence, which refuses to hand over its weapons to the state."
In a statement to the press, Helou also said that he fears "the South is on the brink of a new phase of escalation and could once again become a battleground for regional score-settling if all the pretexts that previously made it, at one period, part of an axis or the theater of a proxy war are not eliminated."
The Maronite League president also condemned the fact that "the president of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, claimed to be in direct contact with fighters on the front lines in Lebanon."
Helou called to "place Lebanon’s interests above foreign interests and to stop making the Lebanese people, the country’s economy, and its institutions bear the cost of conflicts over which they have no control."
Israel has killed at least 4,346 people in Lebanon since March 2.
