From the French Senate, I reaffirmed that Lebanon has made its choice: there will be no return to dual authority, and there is no longer any place for weapons outside the authority of the state or for decisions taken outside its constitutional institutions.
The decision to end Hezbollah’s military presence is a sovereign Lebanese decision. It preceded the Framework Agreement and paved the way for it, affirming that decisions on war and peace, as well as foreign policy, are now the exclusive prerogative of the Lebanese state.
I also stressed that the full extension of the Lebanese Armed Forces’ authority across the entire Lebanese territory remains inseparable from Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Lebanese territories it continues to occupy.
Lebanon today is not asking its friends to manage its crises, but to accompany its recovery. A genuine partnership is one that strengthens the state, consolidates its sovereignty, and is founded on the conviction that a free, sovereign, and democratic Lebanon is not a deferred aspiration, but an irreversible choice.
: Youssef Raggi
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon