Lebanon: Hezbollah Links National Security Strategy Talks to Reconstruction Efforts

A machine clears rubble at a damaged site in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
A machine clears rubble at a damaged site in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Links National Security Strategy Talks to Reconstruction Efforts

A machine clears rubble at a damaged site in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
A machine clears rubble at a damaged site in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah officials continued in southern Lebanon as the party maintains that discussions of its arsenal or the national security strategy hinge on several key issues, mainly the reconstruction efforts.

Hezbollah continues to link any discussion of its weapons to a set of conditions, hindering the government’s process for reform.
Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah accused the government of shunning its responsibilities, although the international community has made it clear that aid for reconstruction after Israel’s war on Lebanon is contingent on the country implementing political and economic reforms, as well as ensuring that weapons are solely in the hands of the state.

“Positions made by some in the government are not only outside the bounds of the ministerial statement, but also contradict it entirely, shunning the responsibilities the government has vowed to the Lebanese people”, said Fadlallah at a ceremony held by the party.

He added that the parliament granted the government its vote of confidence based on the vows the government made in the ministerial statement, “but it seems some are trying to be selective in these commitments based on personal wishes, preferences, or even foreign dictates”, said the MP.

Fadlallah went on to say “the first clause of the ministerial statement commits the government to expediting the reconstruction of what the Israeli enemy has destroyed. The second clause tasks the government with bearing full responsibility for national security, protecting Lebanon’s borders and entry points, and deterring aggression. The third calls for all necessary measures to liberate occupied Lebanese territories”.

He questioned the government’s performance and priorities saying: “What have they done regarding these three clauses?..Has the government fulfilled its commitment to reconstruction? There are five or six provisions that need to be implemented first, after which the discussion about Lebanon’s defense, that requires a comprehensive national security strategy, can be addressed.”

He underscored that “once these clauses are implemented, only then we can discuss other matters."

Also, Hezbollah officials have escalated criticisms towards Prime Minister Nawaf Salam after the latter’s “decisive” statements regarding the party’s disarmament.
“The relations between Hezbollah and PM Nawaf Salam remain based on what is left of goodwill and has not been severed. Channels of communication are still active”, said Hezbollah bloc member Amin Sherri.

Regarding the atmosphere surrounding last week’s meeting between Hezbollah’s Loyalty to the Resistance bloc and President Joseph Aoun, Sherri said in a radio interview that it was “excellent and positive,” with discussions focused on key agreed-upon issues.



US Envoy Reaffirms Backing for Damascus, Rules Out ‘Plan B’

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
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US Envoy Reaffirms Backing for Damascus, Rules Out ‘Plan B’

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

The United States will keep backing Syria’s government and has no “Plan B” to working with it to unite the war‑scarred country back together, still reeling from years of civil war and wracked by new sectarian violence, US envoy Tom Barrack said on Monday.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Barrack – Washington’s ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy for Syria, who is also on a short assignment in Lebanon – called last week’s Israeli strikes inside Syria “badly timed” and said they had “complicated efforts to stabilize the region.”

Barrack spoke in Beirut after more than a week of clashes in Sweida province between Druze militiamen and Sunni Bedouin tribes.

Over the weekend he brokered what he described as a limited ceasefire between Syria and Israel, aimed only at halting the fighting in Sweida. Syrian government troops have since redeployed in the area and evacuated civilians from both communities on Monday, he said.

Barrack told the AP that “the killing, the revenge, the massacres on both sides” are “intolerable,” but that “the current government of Syria, in my opinion, has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together.”

Regarding Israel’s strikes on Syria, Barrack said: “The United States was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the United States’ responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.”

However, he said Israel’s intervention “creates another very confusing chapter” and “came at a very bad time.”

Prior to the violence in Sweida, Israel and Syria had been in talks over security matters, while the Trump administration had been pushing them to move toward full normalization of diplomatic relations.

When the latest fighting erupted, “Israel’s view was that south of Damascus was this questionable zone, so that whatever happened militarily in that zone needed to be agreed upon and discussed with them,” Barrack said. “The new government (in Syria) coming in was not exactly of that belief.”

The ceasefire announced Saturday between Syria and Israel is a limited agreement addressing only the conflict in Sweida, he said. It does not address broader issues including Israel’s contention that the area south of Damascus should be a demilitarized zone.

In the discussions leading up to the ceasefire, Barrack said “both sides did the best they can” to reach agreement on specific questions related to the movement of Syrian forces and equipment from Damascus to Sweida.

He suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than a strong central state in control of the country.

Later Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz posted on X that Israel’s strikes “were the only way to stop the massacre of the Druze in Syria, the brothers of our brothers the Israeli Druze”.

Katz added: “Anyone who criticizes the attacks is unaware of the facts,” he continued. It was not clear if he was responding to Barrack’s comments.

Damascus has been negotiating with the Kurdish forces that control much of northeast Syria to implement an agreement that would merge the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with the new national army.