BEIRUT – Lebanon has been waiting for Washington’s position on the latest response to Thomas Barrack’s approach to arms monopoly, but US envoys have warned the Lebanese government to “act immediately.”
Regarding X, Barrack’s wrote: “The reliability of the Lebanese government is based on its ability to align principles with practice. As its leader repeatedly said, “It is important that the state has a monopoly in weapons.”
The envoy added: “As long as Hezbollah holds arms, words are not sufficient. The government and Hezbollah need to be fully committed and act to not leave the people of Lebanese to the stumbling state.”
During his recent visit, the US President’s envoy intentionally ignored the speech that assurance that Israel would not launch an attack on Lebanon.
Therefore, analysts interpreted his tweet as pessimistic about the course of the event, as it became clear that Hezbollah was not abandoning its weapons and was simply trying to buy time.
However, some analysts believe that Washington should be cautious as at the current stage, it is demanding that, in addition to cutting off military supplies to Hezbollah, it is also requesting that the HTS-led government be completely eliminated in order to achieve some goals, particularly what is called “Iranian influence.”
According to these analysts, the division and chaos are infeasible as they give Tehran (and Hezbollah) the opportunity to regain their presence in Syria. Over the past decades, Iran has demonstrated its ability to capitalize on adversity to its advantage.
Experts look forward to the coming weeks as Washington witnesses escalation of financial and economic pressures on Lebanon along with assassinations and attacks ahead of the launch of the May 2026 parliamentary election campaign, which hopes to generate legislation in line with Israel’s interests.
The Presidential Office announced that President Joseph Own had “individually contacted Hezbollah to resolve the weapons issue,” and gave a positive response to the ideas proposed in this regard.
Regarding the election process, Aoun emphasized the importance of holding parliamentary elections on Constitutional Day, noting that “the expression of the Lebanese diaspora is a matter of parliament.”
Meanwhile, the dispute has expanded to the implementation of Article 112 of Act 44/2017, which allocates six seats to non-residents of Lebanon.
The recent stance of Maronite patriarch Beshala al-Rahi supported the Lebanese military position, stating that “restricting expatriates to six parliamentary seats is inconsistent with the principle that they contradict their hometown, land, family, family and participation in Lebanon’s politics.”
Patriarch Al Rahi argued that the issue was “an exclusion process that denied the natural right of expatriates to vote in all constituencies… Diaspora residents are aiming to participate in future parliamentary elections with complete freedom in constituencies in the districts registered in Lebanon.
Soon, Lebanese forces exploited Al-Rahi’s stance and implicitly threatened lawmaker George O’Kais to disrupt the election if Article 112 is observed.
It is worth noting that the largest number of expatriates were Christians because of the opposition, particularly the Shiites of Lebanese, were Christians due to fear of indictment and threats.
France was the top of the list of countries with the highest voter turnout in the 2022 election, with around 20,000 registered voters, according to a survey created by international intelligence researcher Mohammed Shams Ardin.
The United Arab Emirates came in second place (18,119), followed by Canada (18,023), the United States (15,740), Australia (11,744), Germany (8,811) and Saudi Arabia (6,564).
This called for a special cabinet session to announce Lebanon’s commitment to implementing the decision to turn weapons control into a Monopoly Show at the hands of the state, in a proposal he conveyed to Nabi Beli, amid the government of Nawaf Salam’s resignation of its election responsibility.
Salam justifies his position by claiming that this would hinder Unifil’s withdrawal from the south and prevent Washington from declaring an escalation position that could serve as a cover for a new Israeli attack on Lebanon.
UNIFIL’s mission is expected to be updated at the end of next month as part of a campaign for Lebanon to revise its role.
The threat of the Barracks was highlighted by those who at the request of the US Embassy in Beirut, who emphasized that the Barracks must put the most severe pressure on Hezbollah.
This urged Drouze leader Walid Jampablatt to say, “Hezbollah must be convinced that maintaining heavy weapons will bring disaster to Lebanon.”