Enough with the reckless moves made in service of foreign powers.
En un momento en que el Líbano intenta reconstruirse bajo el peso de la ocupación y la guerra, el primer ministro Nawaf Salam ha alzado la voz para reclamar que ningún grupo armado puede hablar en nombre de una nación entera ni sacrificarla en el altar de intereses ajenos. Las negociaciones directas con Israel, mediadas por Washington, ofrecen un atisbo de salida diplomática, pero Hezbolá —fiel a Teherán y no a Beirut— rechaza esa puerta y a quienes se atreven a abrirla. Lo que está en juego no es solo un alto el fuego, sino la pregunta más antigua de la soberanía: ¿quién tiene el derecho legítimo de decidir la paz y la guerra de un pueblo?
- El primer ministro Salam denunció públicamente que Hezbolá ha arrastrado al Líbano a guerras impuestas desde el exterior, con un saldo de miles de muertos, comunidades enteras desplazadas y 68 localidades del sur bajo ocupación israelí.
- Hezbolá, lejos de ceder, exigió que la delegación libanesa abandone las negociaciones en Washington y tachó de traidores a los funcionarios que se sientan frente a Israel, agudizando la fractura entre el gobierno y el grupo armado.
- Las operaciones militares no se detienen: en una sola semana, fuerzas israelíes reportaron la eliminación de más de 220 combatientes de Hezbolá y el ataque a más de 440 objetivos vinculados al grupo en el sur del país.
- La diplomacia mantiene su calendario: para el 29 de mayo está previsto un diálogo de seguridad entre delegaciones militares libanesas e israelíes, y para el 2 y 3 de junio, una nueva ronda política bajo mediación estadounidense.
- El acuerdo de cese al fuego que el gobierno prometió hacer cumplir —incluyendo el desarme de Hezbolá— ha quedado en papel mojado, pues el grupo controla su propio territorio y responde ante Teherán, no ante Beirut.
El primer ministro libanés Nawaf Salam se dirigió esta semana a su país con un mensaje de hartazgo y urgencia: basta de guerras impuestas, basta de devastación presentada como victoria. Sus palabras llegaron mientras la delegación libanesa y representantes israelíes se reunían en Washington para extender en 45 días un cese al fuego vigente, en conversaciones directas que Hezbolá se negó a integrar y cuya legitimidad rechaza de plano.
Salam no habló en abstracciones. Describió un país donde fuerzas israelíes ocupan 68 localidades en el sur, donde la guerra iniciada por Hezbolá en octubre de 2024 —en solidaridad con los intereses regionales de Irán— ha dejado miles de muertos y comunidades enteras en ruinas. Frente a ese panorama, el primer ministro exigió que ningún grupo armado siga actuando al margen del Estado ni acuse de traición a quienes buscan una salida negociada.
Hezbolá, sin embargo, mantiene su postura sin fisuras. Bajo una nueva conducción tras el asesinato de Hassan Nasrallah en septiembre de 2024, el grupo exige que Lebanon retire su delegación de las conversaciones, rechaza reconocer la autoridad del gobierno para negociar en nombre del país y no tiene intención de deponer las armas. La promesa que el gobierno hizo el año pasado de desarmarlo como condición del cese al fuego ha resultado imposible de cumplir: Hezbolá gobierna su propio territorio y obedece a Teherán.
En paralelo, la presión militar no cesa. En apenas una semana, Israel reportó más de 220 combatientes de Hezbolá abatidos y más de 440 objetivos atacados en el sur del Líbano. La diplomacia, no obstante, mantiene su propio ritmo: el 29 de mayo el Pentágono acogerá un diálogo de seguridad entre militares libaneses e israelíes, y el 2 y 3 de junio está prevista una nueva ronda política. Washington habla de paz duradera, reconocimiento mutuo de soberanía y seguridad fronteriza. Pero esos objetivos exigen un gobierno capaz de hacer cumplir lo que firma —y una organización dispuesta a aceptarlo. Por ahora, ninguna de las dos condiciones existe.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stood before his country this week with a message meant to cut through the noise of war and the weight of occupation: enough. Enough with the reckless moves made in service of foreign powers. Enough with the wars that were never chosen but imposed. Enough with the pretense that devastation amounts to victory.
Salam's words arrived as his government and Israel sat down for direct talks in Washington, extending a ceasefire that has held for 45 days. The timing was deliberate. So was the target. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that controls significant territory across Lebanon, was not in that room. It has refused to be. And it has made clear it will not accept what emerges from these negotiations—or the government's authority to enforce any agreement that constrains its military operations.
The Prime Minister did not mince words about what the past eighteen months have cost his country. Israeli forces now occupy 68 villages, towns, and settlements in southern Lebanon. The war that Hezbollah launched in October 2024 in solidarity with Iran's regional interests has killed thousands, displaced entire communities, and left swaths of the country in ruins. When Salam spoke of deaths, destruction, and displacement, he was not speaking in abstractions. He was speaking of a nation trying to rebuild while one of its most powerful armed groups refuses to lay down its weapons or acknowledge the government's legitimacy to negotiate on Lebanon's behalf.
Hezbollah's position is unambiguous. The group has publicly rejected the government's authority and demanded that Lebanon's delegation withdraw from the talks immediately. It views the negotiations as a strategic error, a capitulation to Israeli and American pressure. The organization, now operating under new leadership after Hassan Nasrallah's assassination in September 2024, continues to frame its military posture as resistance rather than recklessness. It will not disarm. It will not recognize Israeli sovereignty. It will not accept the terms being discussed in Washington.
This defiance puts Salam in an impossible position. Last year, his government committed to disarming Hezbollah as part of the ceasefire agreement. That commitment has proven hollow. The group controls its own territory, commands its own forces, and answers to Tehran, not Beirut. When Salam calls for an end to "incitations and accusations of treason," he is responding to Hezbollah's public attacks on his government for even sitting at the negotiating table. The group has essentially declared that any Lebanese official who talks to Israel is a traitor to the cause.
Meanwhile, the machinery of conflict continues. In the past week alone, Israeli forces reported eliminating more than 220 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. Over 440 targets linked to the group were struck across the region. The operations have focused on infrastructure in areas like Tyre, where civilians were ordered to evacuate beforehand. The ceasefire holds in name, but the military pressure does not ease.
The diplomatic calendar suggests a window is opening. The United States has scheduled a new round of political negotiations for June 2nd and 3rd. Before that, on May 29th, the Pentagon will host a parallel security dialogue between Lebanese and Israeli military delegations. American officials have framed these talks as steps toward lasting peace, mutual recognition of sovereignty, and border security. But those goals depend on a Lebanese government that can actually enforce agreements—and a Hezbollah that accepts the legitimacy of those agreements. Neither condition currently exists.
Salam's plea this week was an attempt to shift the narrative, to argue that Lebanon's interests lie in negotiation and reconstruction, not in serving as a proxy for Iranian ambitions. Whether that argument can prevail against an organization that has spent decades building parallel institutions, command structures, and a constituency that sees resistance as its core identity remains the central question hanging over these talks.
Notable Quotes
Enough with the reckless adventures in service of foreign projects and interests—the last of which is a war we did not choose but that was imposed on us, leading to Israeli occupation of 68 villages and towns.— Lebanese PM Nawaf Salam
After all the deaths, destruction, displacement, and tragedy this war has brought, someone comes to insult our intelligence and call it victory. No more incitement and accusations of treason—this will not intimidate us.— Lebanese PM Nawaf Salam, responding to Hezbollah
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Salam's criticism of Hezbollah matter now, specifically? Isn't this a conflict that's been simmering for years?
Because for the first time, the Lebanese government is actually trying to negotiate its way out—and Hezbollah is saying no. That's a rupture. Salam is trying to build a coalition around the idea that Lebanon's survival depends on disarming, but Hezbollah controls the ground and answers to Iran. His words are powerful precisely because his leverage is weak.
The occupation of 68 villages—that's a concrete cost. Does Salam think Israel will withdraw those territories as part of these talks?
That's what the negotiations are supposed to address. But here's the tension: Israel will likely demand security guarantees, which means Hezbollah has to actually disarm. Hezbollah refuses. So Salam is caught between two immovable objects—Israeli security demands and Hezbollah's refusal to surrender its weapons.
What does Hezbollah actually want? Is there any scenario where it accepts these terms?
Hezbollah's position is that it's defending Lebanon against occupation. From its perspective, disarming means surrendering that defense. It's ideologically committed to resistance, and it has the military capacity to back that up. The only pressure that might move it is sustained Israeli military operations or a shift in Iranian strategy—neither of which seems imminent.
So these June talks—are they likely to produce anything real?
They might produce a framework, an agreement on paper. But implementation is the hard part. Even if Lebanon and Israel sign something, Hezbollah can undermine it by refusing to disarm or by resuming attacks. Salam knows this. His speech was partly directed at the international community—he's trying to show that the Lebanese government is serious, that the problem is Hezbollah's intransigence, not Lebanese bad faith.
What happens if these talks fail?
Then you're back to the ceasefire holding by inertia while both sides prepare for the next round of conflict. The occupation continues. Hezbollah remains armed. Lebanon remains divided between a government trying to be a state and a militia that acts like one.