Jaafarite Mufti Ahmad Kabalan, close to Hezbollah. Photo Ani
BEIRUT — Jaafarite Mufti Ahmad Kabalan, a figure close to the Shiite Amal-Hezbollah alliance, sharply criticized President Joseph Aoun on Friday, accusing him of “going it alone” politically and lamenting that Lebanon has become “a presidency without a president.” “A state run like a farm cannot function,” he said, adding that “a national presidency begins in south Lebanon and on its fronts.”
Speaking during his Friday sermon at the Imam Hussein Mosque in Burj al-Brajneh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the religious dignitary first launched a blistering indictment of the state apparatus. “We live in a country that resembles a farm, in a homeland that is akin to the private property of the executive power, with public administrations in the hands of the state’s contractors, networks of waste, and sharks of political and financial corruption,” he said.
He then criticized the policies pursued by the executive, arguing that it had “lost its bet” and that “the game of political instrumentalization with the United States and Tel Aviv has ended in the worst failures and humiliations.” “The most dangerous thing is that some are immersed in a game of political and security dependency and allegiance that strikes at the very heart of Lebanon’s security and sovereign architecture,” he continued. “What is certain, at this most dangerous time for Lebanon, is that the main guarantors of sovereignty are the resistance, the army and national unity,” he declared, before adding: “There is no enemy more dangerous than Tel Aviv and no guarantor more treacherous than Washington.”
Turning directly to Joseph Aoun, Ahmad Kabalan sharpened his tone further. “A state run like a farm cannot function. A national presidency begins in south Lebanon and on its fronts, and going it alone politically distances you from your people,” he said. According to him, “national, sovereign and popular Lebanon is waging the battle of national resistance, starting from the South,” while lamenting the state’s absence from the region. “The Lebanese people must reorganize, and the current period is a national test,” he added. The Jaafarite mufti went on to deplore that “the country is today a presidency without a president,” accusing the current leadership of going in circles on national issues. He called for Lebanon to be protected from “fragmentation projects, sectarian incitement, Zionist-influenced media, and complicit leadership.”
These criticisms come as Israel steps up its campaign in south Lebanon, despite the framework agreement between Beirut and Tel Aviv concluded on June 26, 2026, in Washington. The agreement, rejected by Hezbollah and its ally Amal, provides for the deployment of the Lebanese Army and the dismantling of Hezbollah’s infrastructure in “pilot zones,” where Israel pledges not to intervene. Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon, conditioned on Hezbollah’s disarmament, is at the heart of direct negotiations launched between Lebanon and Israel. The latest round of talks in Rome failed to yield progress on the future pilot zones or a halt to Israel’s offensive. On Wednesday, President Aoun reiterated his conviction that negotiations with Israel remain Lebanon’s most viable solution, even if “they are neither easy nor fast.”
The religious dignitary finally called on “the church and the mosque” to “make heard the voices of Christ and Mohammed equal to the wrath of heaven against terrorist Tel Aviv.” “Silence here is a sin,” he said, arguing that “whoever remains silent in the face of the violation of his homeland’s sacredness is playing a game that could almost burn Lebanon.”