TEHRAN – Throughout history, political turmoil and national betrayal have often been linked, and Lebanon today is no exception. It faces a dangerous moment where its own officials are making deals that serve Israeli interests.
No sooner had Israeli Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter embraced Lebanon’s Ambassador, Nada Maalouf, during the ceremony marking the signing of the U.S.-brokered framework agreement between the two sides than Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri declared his firm opposition to the deal, warning that it could provoke internal strife in Lebanon.
The Lebanese government’s official surrender document to the Israeli regime is met by the sincere fear of patriots that Lebanon could descend into internal strife. Can genuine warnings against sedition protect the country’s barrier of resistance?
A resistance that shields Lebanon, the Levant, and the other nations from entering the Israeli regime’s project through the gateway of “Greater Israel” project, whose foundations are paving the so-called “David’s Corridor” and knocking on the doors of Syria’s Daraa, Jabal al-Druze, and the Badiya Desert, extending into Iraq along the Turkish border after having already taken Palestine.
Today, even if only the Lebanese hills of Ali al-Taher are still fighting, they do so amid Arab neighbors largely emptied of resistance against the Israeli regime’s expansion plots.
Historically, sedition usually raises its head when leaders, tribes, sects, and parties begin dividing the spoils and surrender to greed. But when war is raging, and the enemy is violating the homeland without restraint, this is not sedition; it is outright treason, and the distinction could not be more critical for those who still cherish their nation’s sovereignty.
Those involved seem to have forgotten May 7, 2008, when Hezbollah’s communications network was challenged and the response was the decisive takeover of Beirut before it was handed over swiftly to the Lebanese Army to restore order according to the Lebanese resistance’s priorities in confronting the ever-watchful Zionist regime.
Yet, today the government in Beirut is pressuring the same Lebanese army to confront the Lebanese resistance, highlighting that their intentions have moved beyond the realm of internal strife and toward falling into the traps of the Israeli regime.
Hezbollah understands that internal conflict is the greatest threat of all, because once a nation turns against itself, nothing can save it from destruction. Those who remain loyal to Lebanon find themselves in a difficult position: they see betrayal happening around them, yet they cannot act forcefully without risking civil war.
This is the cruel trap that has been set for them by both the Lebanese government and Israel backed by its American guarantor. Any move to expose traitors could shatter the unity that remains, but staying silent only allows the Zionist regime to grow bolder.
The Lebanese government delegation that traveled to Washington has effectively handed the regime a diplomatic victory while pretending to care about Lebanese sovereignty, and, in the same stroke, they were fleeing the Iran-U.S. memorandum of understanding, which called for an Israeli ceasefire and full withdrawal from Lebanon under Iranian pressure.
They also carried with them Hezbollah’s fear of civil war, yet these same officials have forgotten their own history. This signals that their goals have shifted from avoiding internal strife to actively working with both nearby and distant enemies.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah continues to defend the country’s borders, knowing that the real battle is not just against Israeli Occupation Forces, but against those inside who are quietly dismantling the nation from within. These internal actors remove small pieces of national strength one by one, convincing themselves that each concession is insignificant.
Yet the cumulative effect is devastating. As the Israeli regime exploits these openings to extend its influence over Lebanese land and resources, the loyalists are forced to calculate every step carefully, because a single miscalculation could ignite sectarian fighting and destroy any remaining hope of resisting foreign occupation. This is the very kind of strife that wise leaders have long warned against when they advised staying out of domestic turmoil entirely.
On a theoretical level, the gap between political strife and national betrayal seems wide when judged by moral and patriotic values. In practice, however, that gap narrows considerably when sectarian loyalties, party interests, and personal ambitions come into play.
The framework agreement with the Israeli occupation regime has brought this tension to its most decisive point. The Lebanese government endlessly lamented violations of Lebanese sovereignty by alleged Iranian involvement, even when the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) waged missile salvos at the Israeli military, after it struck Beirut, for the sake of Lebanese sovereignty.
These are the same officials serving in the government who have called for the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador and claimed that the Iranian operation against the Israeli regime, the first of its kind that changed the regional equation, violated Lebanon’s national sovereignty.
Today, however, those same officials are prepared to grant the Zionist regime legitimacy over its occupation of Lebanese territory because Hezbollah has not surrendered its weapons aimed at Tel Aviv.
At the same time, Tehran has established a clear principle: unity in wartime means shared destiny with every inch of Lebanese soil. This principle links the security of Israeli settlements directly to the safety of southern Lebanese towns and, equally importantly, the safety of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
While the government in Beirut continues its collaboration with the Zionist regime, a growing number of Lebanese figures, politicians, political parties, and activists are deeply concerned about their country descending into internal fighting. They recognize that national unity, once fractured by competing factions, cannot easily be restored.
This episode reveals a deep political and moral decline among Lebanon’s official representatives.
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