Alwaght- With the election of a new president and formation of a new government, Lebanon's political status has entered a new stage under the pressure of foreign players, especially the US. Only a few weeks after the new cabinet started its work, the politicians stepped up their attacks on weapons of Hezbollah, indicating that the disarmament scenario is being advanced under the name of the government right to defend sovereignty and the borders.
In part of his interview with the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Joseph Aoun, the new Lebanese president and former army commander, emphasized before his first trip to Saudi Arabia that "our goal is for the government to be held accountable alone. These are the duties of the government, and no one else is allowed to fulfill its national duty of protecting the land and protecting the people. No one else is allowed to play this role. When there is an attack on Lebanon, the government decides and sees how to act to defend the country."
These stances that directly suggest a tendency to disarm Hezbollah come while in 20 years, this is the first time that the word "resistance" is removed from a statement released by the Council of Ministers, raising many questions about the military role of Hezbollah in the next stage.
Hezbollah's smart tactic: Shooting the ball in the government court
The new stances of the government officials about the need to exercise sovereignty on arms and defense of borders come as, by the way, these days there is a insistent demand by the Lebanese people for the Israelis to withdraw from five strategic regions inside Lebanese the remained in after expiration of the ceasefire deal. In other words, the public opinion are extremely worried that these regions will suffer the same fate of other occupied Lebanese territories like Shebba Farms and Shabbaa Kefar and Hillls and they seek a serious action of the political leaders to Israeli occupation.
In these circumstances, Hezbollah and the resistance body, which over the past years have had single-handedly borne the burden of the Lebanese army's inability and power vacuum in defending the territorial integrity and the lives, property, and honor of Lebanese citizens against the threats and aggressions of the Israeli regime, have now, in the face of verbal attacks from government officials, invited them to a not-so-great test to prove to Lebanese public opinion they can protect the country.
Over the past few days, a number of Hezbollah members of parliament and figures close to the resistance movement addressed the government, saying that if it insists on the capability of army to defend the country independent of the Hezbollah assistance, Hezbollah is open to this.
In this connection, Hassan Fadhullah, the member of Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, in a funeral service for martyrs in southern Lebanon said: "We, from the town of Ayta ash Shab, the town of pride and dignity, announce that we have entrusted the government with the responsibility of expelling the occupiers from the occupied territories."
In another comment on the issue, Hussein al-Jayshi, another member of the bloc, in a speech in a ceremony commemorating martyrs of battle against the Israeli occupation in Naqoura highlighted Hezbollah's victory over Israel and foiling of the Israeli plan to seize Naqoura town, maintaining that the government has a real opportunity to practically shoulder the responsibility it has to expel the Israeli occupation forces from Lebanon and rebuild the war ruins, especially the villages and towns bordering the occupied territories.
He called on the government to seriously and resolutely deal with the daily Israeli attacks and violations and press the countries that guarantee the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah to ensure implementation of the terms of the deal.
Ali Khreis, a parliamentarian from of the Freedom and Development bloc, also made a similar statement, saying: "Today we have a new president of the republic and a new government, and it is the duty of the Lebanese government to constantly try to force the occupiers to withdraw from all our lands and soil and rebuild what the enemy has destroyed."
With these statements, Hezbollah has practically put the ball in the government's court in response to the government officials' aggressive stances against its weapons, as mentioned, and now government officials must answer to public opinion for their inability to implement the ceasefire agreement and expel the Israeli forces from the occupied lands.
With this astute tactic, Hezbollah also exposed foreign actors interfering in Lebanon's internal affairs who are conspiring against the resistance and held them responsible for strengthening the Lebanese army and supporting government forces to fully implement the ceasefire and expel the Israeli occupation.
Certainly, Hezbollah's political tactic puts a challenging situation ahead of the internal and external potters. After all, in addition to the public opinion, it is clear to Lebanese government officials that the Westerners and on top of them the Americans will never take actions in favor of Lebanon and against illegitimate interests of Israeli regime, especially since American officials who recently traveled to Lebanon clearly stated that they prefer Israel over Lebanon, and while Israeli attacks on the Lebanese army have not stopped even after the agreement and these attacks are inflicting casualties on the Lebanese army almost every day, the Americans have not made even a verbal statement in opposition to this blatant violation of the ceasefire.
Still, the Lebanese government's approach so far has revolved around trying to dodge the issue and show dishonesty to the public to evade its obligations. For example, President Aoun downplayed the importance of the five areas remaining under Israeli occupation, saying: "We are now in constant contact with the French and Americans to pressure the Israelis to withdraw from the five points, because they have no military value."
Furthermore, despite his experience as an army commander and his awareness of the fundamental strategy of the US to maintain the military superiority of the Israeli regime over its neighbors and not equip the Lebanese army with deterrent weapons against the Israeli attacks, Aoun nevertheless emphasized regarding the relationship with the US: "I am always optimistic, frankly, the relationship with the US is essential. 90 percent of the financial, training, and equipment assistance that came to us was only from the US army command."
However, definitely this government approach to convince the public opinion is far from able to last long and the Lebanese people will take action against the Israeli threats and plots aimed at disarming Hezbollah as the main protector of the Lebanese national interests and territorial sovereignty as they see foreign sides' lack of will to force Israeli regime to end its occupation of the Lebanese soil.
