The head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, at the Baabda presidential palace, Jan. 13, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/ L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — A week after Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil made scathing remarks about Hezbollah and its popular base — describing them as “decrepit, displaced, emigrated, ruined and desperate” — tensions between the two former allies escalated sharply over the weekend.
Following a fierce attack by former Hezbollah MP Nawaf Mussawi against the Aounist leader, including accusations that he was “shameless” and “uneducated,” and the assertion that “nobody likes him” in Lebanon, the Christian party hit back Sunday morning, calling on the Iran-backed group to “avoid getting involved in additional problems with the Lebanese” that could “increase its isolation.”
Asked about recent statements by Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, who reiterated the party’s familiar rhetoric about being “strong” and “victorious” and said it would neither yield nor lay down its arms, Bassil responded sharply.
“You are still here, yes, but decrepit, displaced, emigrated, ruined, desperate and resigned,” Bassil said, as the Shiite party remains powerless in the face of the systematic destruction of villages in southern Lebanon, with the Israeli army occupying more than 600 square kilometers for several months.
The Batroun MP also accused Hezbollah of “dragging us into a war from which it does not know how to get out,” referring to the two successive wars Hezbollah fought against Israel — the first in 2023, in support of Palestinian Hamas, and the second last March, in support of Iran — before accusing it of “raising the level of confrontation with the Lebanese state.”
Nasrallah 'the only one able to tolerate' Bassil
A week later, Mussawi responded on the pro-Hezbollah channel Al-Manar in particularly harsh terms, saying he was “convinced that nobody likes this man in Lebanon.”
He added that “the only one who was able to tolerate him was [assassinated former Hezbollah Secretary-General] Hassan Nasrallah,” calling Bassil’s comments “shameful” and accusing him of being “shameless” and “uneducated.”
“We have known you since you were nothing, and we carried you with us to this point,” he continued, arguing that the FPM leader should have apologized to those “who were his allies.”
Mussawi even said he would now prefer to engage in dialogue with other Christian figures, “even if they are at the height of their hostility” toward Hezbollah.
FPM says Nasrallah would have avoided 'many mistakes'
The FPM responded Sunday morning in an equally fiery statement, first reproaching Mussawi for failing to respect “the bounds of politeness and proper behavior” and for commenting on Bassil’s remarks out of context.
The party said its leader had been referring to the consequences of the war suffered by “all the Lebanese,” rather than only Hezbollah’s popular base.
Accusing the former MP of using, “as usual,” “rhetoric based on illusions,” stoking tensions and “provoking the Lebanese,” the FPM said his attacks reinforced the correctness of its own position, which it described as being based on “Lebanon’s interest, regardless of any alignment.”
On the second anniversary of Nasrallah’s assassination, the party also expressed deep regret over his absence, saying that his presence would have spared “many mistakes” for both Hezbollah and Lebanon. The statement concluded by calling on Hezbollah to “avoid getting involved in additional problems with the Lebanese,” which would only “increase tensions” and “its isolation.”
The two parties have been at odds since the collapse of their 2006 alliance, amid disagreements over the presidential election and wars in Lebanon and the region. Hezbollah has increasingly found itself isolated on the domestic political scene, amid the risk of a new round of violence.