Gebran Bassil, Leader Of Lebanon's Free Patriotic Movement (FPM): Hizbullah Focuses On Defending The Country, While We Focus On Building The State; The Goals Should Complement Each Other

Former Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, who is currently the leader of Lebanon's Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), said in an April 28, 2022 interview on Mayadeen TV (Lebanon) that the FPM's priorities are not mutually exclusive with – and can actually complement – Hizbullah's priorities. He explained that the FPM's priority is to build the Lebanese state while Hizbullah’s priorities are the resistance and its weapons, and that Hizbullah's resistance and weapons can be used to defend the state being built by the FPM. In addition, Bassil said that the Trump administration had wanted the Lebanese state to collapse since it believed that this would lead to the collapse of Hizbullah.

Gebran Bassil: "The Free Patriotic Movement's number on priority is the building and reforming of the Lebanese state. We understand that Hizbullah's priority is different - the resistance and its weapons. In this case, there is an essential difference, but this does not mean...

"The two can complement one another. There can be two priorities"

Interviewer: "So there is no contradiction?"

Bassil: "Not just that. Hizbullah's priority can be to defend Lebanon and protect the weapons that defend Lebanon, while knowing that this can never be complete without the building of the state, and we can have the building of the state as our priority, while considering the resistance to be part of this state-building.

Interviewer: "The slogan is 'building and defending.'"

Bassil: "Yes. Great. But they should be parallel. The 'defending' part cannot always be ahead of the 'building' part."

[...]

Interviewer: "Are there regional and international parties that wanted the Lebanese state to collapse?"

Bassil: "Of course. The Trump administration... In America, there has recently been a conflict between two ideas. One believed that by letting Lebanon collapse, they would shake Hizbullah, which would lead to Hizbullah's own collapse.

"This idea was associated with the Trump administration.

"The second idea contended the opposite: That if Lebanon collapsed, Hizbullah would get stronger."