Lebanon’s Hezbollah group seeks to restore a “Christian” cover for the battles it's waging against Israel in South Lebanon, and has therefore visited its former ally and founder of the Free Patriotic Movement Michel Aoun.
Hezbollah MPs, Mohammed Raad, Ali Ammar and Hassan Fadlallah, visited the former president, Aoun, at his residence to brief him on the field developments in South Lebanon.
Relations deteriorated between the former allies when the term of Aoun officially ended on 31 October, 2022.
The Aounists believe that Hezbollah was involved in thwarting the term of Aoun, and accuse the party of turning a blind eye to what they believe is “trespassing” on the jurisdictions of the post of president which has been vacant since the term end of Aoun.
Lebanon's divided parliamentarians have since failed to elect a successor to Aoun.
After the Hezbollah delegation held talks with Aoun, Raad said that “connections with Aoun were never and will never be broken.
“Our visit is an opportunity to brief the President on the situation on the ground. We insist on maintaining dialogue...to solve major problems Lebanon is suffering from”.
But a senior FPM source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the visit "changes nothing in our position regarding what is happening in the South”, he said.
Although Hezbollah’s meeting with Aoun aimed to explain that the party is trying to contain the situation in the south, in the end, “it is categorically unacceptable to link the fronts of Lebanon and Gaza”, according to the source.
Earlier, Aoun had stated that engaging in a war with Israel only encourages aggression against Lebanon.
“Engaging in confrontation only exacerbates the danger. We are not bound with Gaza by a defense treaty ...but part of the Lebanese people has already made a choice, and the government is incapable of taking a stance”.
Aoun’s rhetoric only increased the rift between the FPM and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has publicly indicated that it would halt its attacks on Israel from Lebanon when the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip stops, but that it was also ready to keep on fighting if Israel continued hostilities.
Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in hostilities for months in parallel to the Gaza war. It has marked the worst conflict between the heavily armed adversaries since a 2006 war, fuelling fears of an even bigger confrontation.
