I was at the Damascus residence of Iraqi politician and publisher Fakhri Karim. A visitor, who appeared weighed down with disappointment, arrived. I tried to persuade him to return to journalism after a long break. My friends warned me that he was a difficult person to deal with. But I viewed him as a unique writer, and it was an honor for publications to print his works.
Poet Mohammed al-Maghout smiled at me and said: “You want me to return to writing articles. My pen has grown tired of what I have written. I am weary myself. What do you want me to write about amid this cross-border chaos and destruction we are witnessing?”
Commenting on an interview I had held with Bashar al-Assad, Maghout smiled again and said: “Be careful. This cub is the son of that lion [Assad is Arabic for lion].” He did not elaborate, but his expression said it all. This regime cannot be reformed. Before leaving, he advised me against “falling in the trap of hope.”
I recalled Maghout in these recent weeks. I recalled him the first time when Ahmed al-Sharaa made his appearance from the Umayyad Mosque square in Damascus to declare the fall of over half a century of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad's rule. I recalled him again when the rudderless Lebanese republic elected army commander General Joseph Aoun as president, tasking him with the mission of restoring the republic and reviving hope in building the state after decades of ruin.
Lebanon had witnessed a particularly terrible slide towards ruin in recent years. It experienced long years of humiliation and poverty. The more the state grew fragmented, the more the Lebanese people became isolated and orphaned. The Lebanese and non-Lebanese people lost their life savings in the banks amid the financial collapse. Citizens queued in front of banks to beg for a handful of dollars. World news agencies broadcast images of Lebanese people rummaging through garbage in search of anything that would stem their hunger. For the first time in the country’s history, youths threw themselves in the “boats of death” to escape unemployment and hunger.
Aoun feared that the army would fall apart, but his integrity encouraged friends of Lebanon to aid the military institution and prevent it from collapsing under the weight of poverty and as the state lay in a coma. From his office in Yarze, Aoun took bold decisions. He refused to quell protests against the political elite who caused this chaos. He also prevented the country from sliding into civil war.
The abasement of the Lebanese people became a daily occurrence. The abasement of the constitution became a rule. The parliament and the state were in disarray. The judiciary fell into the hands of those undermining it. Lebanon lost is regional and international friends. It lost its role and meaning. It seemed that the Lebanese patient was resisting all treatments that would save it.
With the vacancy in the presidency lasting two years yet again, it seemed that the Lebanese entity was drawing its last breath and that the segments that make up its society no longer shared the same principles and beliefs that would allow them to coexist under the same roof.
Joseph Aoun did not lose hope. Throughout the vacuum, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati tried to salvage what he could from the last remaining pieces of the state and delay the imminent collapse. But then the surprises started to happen. Yehya al-Sinwar launched the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation and Hassan Nasrallah opened the “support front” a day later and everything unraveled after that.
US envoy Amos Hochstein had to stop the Israeli machine of destruction. Lebanon had no choice but to agree to return to resolution 1701. The Israeli practices after the ceasefire came into effect revealed the extent of the imbalance in the balances of power. Netanyahu had launched a war to change the features of the Middle East and his brutal military machine struck near and far, targeting Iran’s proxies and even Iran itself.
Then the seismic shift happened. Bashar al-Assad got on a plane that flew him to exile and Ahmed al-Sharaa took his place in Damascus, while the Iranian influence in the region waned.
The war that had taken place on several maps altered the balances of power in the region. Lebanon found itself confronted with the fallout of the ceasefire and the major change in Syria. Lebanon had to find a man who believed in the state, institutions and the state of law, and who had not played a part in the country’s ruin. Joseph Aoun’s candidacy started to gain steam.
Several blocs didn’t want to elect him. They view him as a difficult man to deal with. He is brave and cannot be intimidated. He is honorable and his will cannot be broken with temptations. Wide internal support for him intersected with an Arab and international drive to help Lebanon reclaim its state.
Aoun was elected. His inaugural speech revived the dream of restoring the state. He spoke of unity and equality in a state of law. He spoke of the Taif Accord, positive neutrality and an independent judiciary. He spoke of the state reclaiming all of its rights, including limiting the possession of weapons to its institutions. He spoke of what the vast majority of the Lebanese people dreamed of. The world soon rushed to embrace Lebanon.
It won’t be easy to save Lebanon from the vast ruin and it won’t be easy for it to revive the state. It needs internal and external support. It needs a Lebanese awakening that supports integrity, the state of law and that understands the need to take difficult decisions. This is not just a test to the new president, but a test to all the Lebanese people and political powers. Patience will be necessary and roles that are beyond Lebanon’s capabilities and which had led it to ruin need to be abandoned.
