Geagea: Political Deadlock Must End for War Truce

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea emphasized that electing a new president is crucial for securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon has been without a president for nearly two years, during a period marked by a severe economic crisis and now intensified by Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah positions.

The country’s political factions, including Hezbollah’s allies and their opponents like the Lebanese Forces, have been at an impasse over electing a president. Geagea, who leads the largest Christian bloc in parliament, stressed the immediate priority is achieving a ceasefire to alleviate the suffering of the Lebanese people. He remarked that without international initiatives, electing a president is the only viable path toward ending the conflict.

Geagea, who has close ties with the United States and Saudi Arabia, accused Hezbollah earlier of dragging Lebanon into war with Israel, bypassing the state’s authority. Since September 23, exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel escalated into full-scale war, with Israel conducting heavy bombardments in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs, claiming to target Hezbollah sites.

Geagea called for the election of a president who would be committed to fully implementing international resolutions, specifically U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1559, 1680, and 1701. Resolutions 1559 and 1680 call for the disarmament of non-state groups, while Resolution 1701, passed after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, mandates that only the Lebanese Army and peacekeepers be armed and present in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah, founded after Israel’s siege of Beirut in 1982, remains the only group that retained its weapons following Lebanon’s civil war (1975-1990), justifying its stance as a “resistance” against Israel. However, critics argue that Hezbollah operates as a “state within a state.”

Geagea asserted that the future president must ensure that all strategic decisions are made solely by the Lebanese state.