Lebanon, Hezbollah and Negotiations with Israel: Interview with Bassam Ghanum
A Lebanese Sunni Perspective
A ceasefire is now officially in place between Lebanon and Israel, and a second round of direct talks is reportedly due to take place between the two countries in Washington tomorrow. The U.S. mediation is likely motivated by a desire to secure an agreement- separate from the American negotiations track with Iran- that will normalise relations between Israel and Lebanon. Undoubtedly there are some in Lebanon (probably a small minority) who would welcome such developments alongside the final disarmament of Hezbollah, but others take a more nuanced view in which they see negotiations with Israel not as a track towards normalisation but rather a bitter necessity to spare Lebanon further destruction, just as they deem Hezbollah’s disarmament a necessity, not as an act of surrender to Israel but to give Lebanon a chance at stability.
The following interview below was conducted yesterday with Bassam Ghanum, a writer and political analyst for the site al-Aman that is linked to Lebanon’s Islamic Group (the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood), though I emphasise that Ghanum is speaking to me in his own capacity and whatever views he expresses here do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Islamic Group.
It is notable, however, that whereas the Islamic Group’s armed wing- Quwat al-Fajr- was a participant in the south Lebanon ‘support front’ for Gaza as a junior partner of Hezbollah in 2023-2024, it does not appear to have participated in the fighting this time between Hezbollah and Israel. This is so despite the praise that the Islamic Group’s southern branch recently offered for the ‘resistance’ and its ‘legendary steadfastness’ while calling for a ‘national defence strategy’ that combines the role of the ‘resistance forces in the field’ with the ‘role of state institutions.’
Below is the interview with Bassam.
Bassam Ghanum
Q: How do you assess the war that took place between Hezbollah and Israel recently? What did you think of Hezbollah’s opening of a support front for Iran against Israel? Did the war result in big losses for Hezbollah? Now the Israelis are occupying a number of villages in south Lebanon: is Lebanon compelled to negotiate with Israel as we now see in Washington?