After Years Of Praising Hezbollah… Gebran Bassil Wants Peace With Israel

Gebran Bassil said he wants peace with Israel under conditions that protect Lebanon’s rights and sovereignty. He also backed placing all weapons under state control and rejected dragging Lebanon into others’ wars.

His remarks come nearly 20 years after the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah signed the Mar Mikhael agreement in 2006. The alliance gave Hezbollah political and Christian backing, while Bassil defended its weapons and decisions through deeply divisive moments.

The agreement survived the events of May 7, 2008, when Hezbollah used its weapons domestically, and its military intervention in Syria. Both parties also politically opposed the October 17, 2019 protest movement. Bassil later argued that the protests were used to target his party and weaken Hezbollah’s Christian support.

Today, Bassil criticizes Hezbollah’s wars as contrary to Lebanon’s interests and calls for state control of weapons and conditional peace with Israel. Yet his shift leaves questions about his political responsibility for an alliance he defended for years—one that helped strengthen Hezbollah’s influence within the state.