Marwan Abdallah, head of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Lebanese Kataeb Party, said the emerging Lebanon-Israel framework agreement should be understood as a standalone process and not as an extension of broader US-Iran diplomacy.

Speaking to The Media Line, Abdallah stressed that the Washington-mediated track between Beirut and Tel Aviv is separate from parallel negotiations involving Iran and regional mediators.

“Not Islamabad, not Tehran, not Qatar, not Oman. None of these processes is linked to the framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel,” Abdallah said, arguing that Iran’s only legitimate role in Lebanon would be to withdraw its support for Hezbollah across all dimensions.

“As Lebanese, and I think as Israelis, we don’t acknowledge Iran’s role in our process,” he said. “If Iran wants to have a role in our process, the only role that it’s required to do is to stop supporting Hezbollah, stop financing it, stop giving it orders to support their front and to launch attacks, and help us dismantle the organization.”

“Otherwise, there’s no role for Iran, irrespective of what is mentioned in the MOU that they signed with Washington,” he added.

Abdallah called for cutting off funding streams to Hezbollah and other non-state armed groups, warning that any easing of sanctions on Iran could indirectly strengthen Tehran’s regional influence network. He explained that Western assumptions that any unfrozen Iranian assets would be redirected toward domestic welfare need to be reconsidered given the ideological priorities of Iran’s leadership.

Drawing on Lebanon’s experience with Iran-backed Hezbollah, Abdallah said outcomes tend to run in the opposite direction.

“We know for a fact that none of the money will go to the people of Iran, and it will be used to support the terrorist activities of Iran,” Abdallah said. “So, this is a naive approach from the West and the Americans.”

On the security side, Abdallah described the proposed “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon as a practical test of whether the Lebanese Armed Forces can assert state authority on the ground and dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure step by step.

He said the monitoring mechanism could provide the army with intelligence inputs, including from Israel and the United States, allowing it to take control of designated areas, remove armed infrastructure, and then gradually expand the model elsewhere.

He emphasized that this approach would reinforce state authority through national institutions rather than foreign intervention.

“For us as Lebanese, it’s the Lebanese army that’s taking control, so it’s not a foreign army. And I think this is the best thing that can happen,” he said.

Still, Abdallah argued that the current opportunity comes after years of destruction in southern Lebanon. He said Lebanon failed to act earlier, before Israeli operations devastated villages and Hezbollah infrastructure. He blamed Hezbollah for initiating a war it could not sustain and then refusing to relinquish its weapons even after widespread damage in the south.

In his view, the framework should not remain geographically limited to areas south of the Litani River. If the pilot zones succeed, he said, the model should be extended across southern Lebanon and eventually applied nationwide.

Beyond security arrangements, Abdallah pointed to a broader political and social shift inside Lebanon. He said the war years have made open discussion of peace with Israel less taboo in parts of Lebanese society, while senior officials including President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have taken more assertive positions toward Hezbollah than in the past.

He also noted the emergence of Israeli voices in Lebanese media and polling trends suggesting growing public openness to alternatives to permanent confrontation.

Abdallah said Aoun and Salam represent a parliamentary majority and are acting in line with what he described as Lebanon’s national interest. He cited polling he said showed 55% support among Lebanese for peace with Israel.

“Peace, not just cessation of hostilities, not going back to the truce of 1949,” Abdallah said.

That framing directly challenges Hezbollah’s warning that any attempt to disarm it could trigger civil conflict. Abdallah rejected that argument, saying the term “civil war” is being misapplied.

In his view, clashes between political factions or sectarian groups would meet that definition, but the enforcement of state law against an illegal armed organization would not.

“But when the army, the legitimate army of the country, is implementing the law and the constitution of the country, and is given an order by the president, the prime minister, and the cabinet of the country to dismantle a military group that is illegal, it’s not a civil war. It’s a terrorist organization or a military group resisting the law enforcement entities and resisting the rule of law.”

He added that Hezbollah is the only actor capable of escalating the situation into internal conflict.

“No one wants to do a civil war except for Hezbollah,” he said. “No one is capable of doing a civil war except for Hezbollah because they are the ones who are armed and have their own militia.”

Abdallah said the Lebanese state is also offering non-violent pathways, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs.

“We are proposing many nonviolent paths to disarm willingly, to create economic opportunities and incentives for the people who are in Hezbollah, to do a DDR process, to help them rebuild their villages, to help them go back to their villages,” he said.

“If you want to stay stubborn about what you are doing or what you are deciding because Iran asked you to, then you have to pay the price,” he added.

He said Lebanon has endured decades of repeated wars and now needs to shift toward a different trajectory.

“I think it’s time. No human being lives to fight. No people in the world, no country in the world exists to keep fighting all the time,” he said.

Abdallah also drew a clear distinction between Lebanon’s position and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The idea of removing Israel from existence is not something that we believe in,” he said.

“There’s a problem between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It’s for the Israelis and the Palestinians to solve. It’s not for us, the Lebanese, to solve,” he said. “We are too small a country. We carried the Palestinian cause for 80 years now, and now is the time to move on.”

He added that the shift in sentiment is not confined to any single sectarian community.

“The decision is clear, and it’s cross-sectarian by the way. It’s not Christian only. The Sunnis, the Druze, the Christians, and some of the Shia are fed up with the war, and we want to live in peace,” he said.

“So yes, recognizing Israel is a big step, but it’s normal. The big step would be when we find peace, and this would mean ending 100 years of conflict,” he added.