Hawzah News Agency- Sheikh Ali al-Khatib, Deputy Head of Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Shia Council, has warned against attempts to disarm the resistance while Israeli occupation continues, stressing that the resistance emerged as a result of occupation—not the other way around.
Speaking on the latest developments in Lebanon and the region, al-Khatib pointed to President Joseph Aoun's call for an inclusive national dialogue to chart a national vision for the future, and for abandoning the single-option policy of direct negotiations that has yielded no results across seven rounds.
Region on a Boiling Cauldron
Al-Khatib said the entire region remains on a boiling cauldron—from Lebanon to the Strait of Hormuz, Yemen, Syria, and Palestine—amid escalating political and military tensions and fears of a wider war. He described this as the result of American and Zionist projects that have turned the region into a volcano of crises, citing the situation in Yemen as a live example.
The senior cleric added that the prospect of solutions remains out of reach due to intransigence from the United States and the Israeli regime, as the language of dialogue has been suspended pending the outcome of US and Israeli elections in less than two months. He noted that many are hedging their bets, as negotiations during election periods become a dialogue of the deaf—to the point where matters appear to have reached a dead end. Observers and experts expect clarity after the elections: either the scene explodes on a large scale, or agreements are reached that lead to some form of balanced solutions.
Washington's Regional Gambit
Al-Khatib continued: "While the US president is counting on these elections and promising solutions after them, some even within his own team are concerned about tensions continuing until the end of his presidency. This indicates that the US administration is advancing its plans and adventures to bring the entire region to its knees, while the expansionist Zionist project—openly and brazenly expressed by enemy leaders—is no longer hidden from anyone."
He added: "In light of this reality, we in Lebanon are not an island isolated from regional events—however much some try to link matters to internal arrangements without any guarantee that would assure people about their future. They demand the disarmament of the resistance to open the way for solutions, while enemy leaders insist on not withdrawing from the occupied area in the south. This contradicts the natural rules of things. The resistance came into being as a result of occupation, not the reverse. When occupation ends, the fate of the resistance can be discussed through a national defense strategy that Lebanese officials, foremost among them the president, have called for."
Disarmament Under Occupation 'Impossible'
Sheikh Ali al-Khatib stated: "Disarmament under occupation is neither possible nor natural. This is what we have declared to all those consulting on this matter, and this is a position we are all committed to—with a single, unified stance. To those who sympathize and those who do not with the Shia national position, we say that the Shia position, with all its components and regarding all current issues, is unified and indivisible, and some minor slips that are always used to maneuver around this reality will not affect it."
He also said: "We have said and repeat the president's call to abandon the single-option policy of direct negotiations that has produced no result across seven rounds—while Israel uses our blood, the bombing of our homes and institutions, as an election card and displaces our loved ones from their land, cities, and towns. The earthquake-like explosion in Ali al-Taher last night was the largest example of Zionist brutality and its aggressive intentions."
He added: "We conveyed this reality with full clarity last week to our brothers in Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran at the highest political and religious levels, telling them that when we speak to you with this clarity, we are in fact speaking to ourselves. There are more than forty thousand displaced families in urgent need of care and shelter until they return to their areas and towns, and we are all responsible for caring for them. We have received positive responses and hope they will materialize in the near future."
Commitment to the State
Sheikh al-Khatib concluded: "Once again, before everyone, we repeat and emphasize that we are among those most committed to a state that supports its people and upholds its sovereignty. We are among the strongest supporters of the deployment of the national Lebanese army across all Lebanese territory and the achievement of security that reassures our people in their areas. Anyone who thinks we covet a state within a state or dream of a separatist project is deluded. We were not so in the past and will not be in the future. We only want a just national partnership that achieves dignity and fairness for our people. Had the state been present on its southern borders in the past, we would not have reached where we are today, and we would have preserved the pure, innocent blood that was spilled only for the sake of the entire homeland for our people and youth."
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