Lebanon’s PM calls for global funding as it pushes to disarm Hizbollah
Former ICJ head Nawaf Salam is leading first government in decades to go up against militant group
Lebanon’s prime minister has said the international community needs to step up financial support for the fragile country and its army if his government is to succeed in its ambitious plan to disarm Hizbollah.
Nawaf Salam, who took power in January, said funding from western and Arab states was key to stabilising Lebanon after the war between Israel and Hizbollah last year left swaths of the country in ruins.
Lebanon needs at least $14bn to rebuild, according to the World Bank, along with cash for its under-resourced military which, under the terms of the ceasefire agreement with Israel, is due to take over areas of southern Lebanon under Hizbollah control.
“We have done what we needed to do. To go further, we need Arab and international support,” Salam, a former head of the International Court of Justice, told the Financial Times in a wide-ranging interview this week.
“We need support in terms of equipment and finances to the army . . . and clear financial support for reconstruction and recovery. And we need it now. Now is the time for them to step in,” he said.
Western and Arab governments, however, had indicated to Lebanese officials they wanted to see concrete action on Hizbollah before providing financing, according to people familiar with the matter, citing Lebanon’s historic refusal to rein in the militant group.
Nonetheless, the pledge earlier this month to disarm Hizbollah — which over the past four decades has grown into Lebanon’s most potent political and military force — marked the first time since the end of the civil war in 1990 that a government has gone up against the militant group.
But implementing the US-initiated plan — under which Hizbollah is expected to hand over its weapons to the state by the end of the year — hinges on several factors outside the government’s control.
Despite a ceasefire in November, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Lebanon and continued to occupy at least five pockets of Lebanese territory, inflaming tensions across the country.
Hizbollah, though weakened by its war with Israel, has lambasted both the government and Salam for the plan, saying it will not abide by it and threatening civil strife if pushed. And no one expects the army to take on Hizbollah militarily, meaning dialogue is the only recourse, experts say.
Nine months before a parliamentary election expected to be a referendum on Salam’s reformist government, the prime minister’s domestic critics increasingly question whether he has the mettle to deliver enough progress to convince the electorate to give them a second chance.
“We are now planting the seeds of a strong state,” Salam said. “You need to water them, and you need to give them some time to grow.”
The sprightly 71-year-old’s unexpected nomination for the premiership, shortly after the selection of army chief Joseph Aoun as president, reinvigorated hope for many that Lebanon was finally turning a corner after years of crisis.
But his popularity dipped when the government stumbled at its first hurdle over a fight to nominate the head of the central bank in March — which led to criticism that he was temperamentally unsuited for the cage fight of Lebanese politics — and has struggled to recover since.
Salam said his main focus had been restoring the faith of the Lebanese people and the international community in his country. And to do that, “we needed rule of law and reforms, reforms, reforms”.
In its first few months, his government pushed through long-stalled laws restructuring the banking sector — five years after the country’s devastating financial crisis — and strengthening judicial independence.
It has also arrested ex-ministers on corruption charges — almost unheard of in a country where impunity is rife — and resumed the investigation into the 2020 port blast that had been halted due to political interference.
Government allies argue these are important victories given the level of intransigence, political corruption and vested interests that have long worked to obstruct reform.
“To the outside world, these may seem basic,” said justice minister Adel Nassar, who is key to implementing Salam’s vision of the rule of law. “Are they perfect laws? No, but they are what’s possible in Lebanon today.”
Salam has assembled a cabinet of competent technocrats who work despite offices with peeling paint, little-to-no electricity and bare-bones staffing. But he is also, some say, a micromanager who eschews advisers and is unable to make fast enough progress.
“People say I’m stubborn and undiplomatic, but I simply refuse to compromise on my principles,” Salam said, adding that he hoped the people of Lebanon would give his incremental approach a chance.
“People want 24-hour electricity today. They want inflation to stop . . . But I can’t give them that! You can’t build a house without foundations. And right now, we are laying the foundations,” he said.
“We are at the ground floor and we are building up. It won’t be Le Corbusier, but it will work.”
To sceptics, none of this will be enough for the monumental challenge of disarming Hizbollah.
There were indications this week that the plan was already faltering, after a visit by US special envoy Tom Barrack ended without a gesture of good faith by Israel, which Salam said was essential to advance the deal and which was promised by US officials.
“We told Barrack that the Israelis need to take a real step. They need to show us they’re willing to start withdrawing from Lebanese territory, stop their daily incursions, release the prisoners,” Salam said. “Just pick one and put something on the table.”
Instead, Israel said it would take such action only after Hizbollah was disarmed, frustrating Lebanese officials, who privately warned that this setback could embolden Hizbollah to resist disarmament and push them towards domestic stand-off.
Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s Speaker of parliament and ally of Hizbollah, said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that US officials “gave us the opposite of what they promised us and . . . therefore things have become complicated again”.
Despite this, Salam was determined that his government would see through disarmament, pointing to Palestinian armed groups that had begun handing over their own weapons to the Lebanese army last week as an example.
For all the fanfare, only a handful of weapons were ultimately handed over. Nevertheless, the ever-optimistic Salam was encouraged.
“This is more than symbolic. A taboo has been broken on the issue of weapons in Lebanon,” he said. “You’ll see, more will come soon.”