Hezbollah: Lebanon Cannot Survive Except as One — Unified, Sovereign and Resistant to Occupation

Translated by Al-Ahed News, Hezbollah Media Relations

In a statement marking the centenary of the Lebanese Constitution, Hezbollah presented its position on Lebanon’s political future, national unity, constitutional reform and resistance against “Israel”.

The statement frames the constitution — especially after the Taif Agreement amendments — as the binding national framework for preserving sovereignty, coexistence and partnership among all Lebanese communities.

Hezbollah issued the following statement on the centenary of the Lebanese Constitution:

At the centenary of the Lebanese Constitution, the Lebanese people stand before a critical moment amid highly sensitive domestic and regional circumstances — a moment that demands, more than ever, adherence to the Lebanese Constitution as amended by the Taif Agreement, as the binding reference for managing differences among Lebanese, governing the affairs of the state, and safeguarding the country’s unity and sovereignty. It also requires leaving behind the era of mandates, high commissioners, and foreign tutelage — an era that has ended and must never return to Lebanon under any form or guise.

Lebanon, as defined by its constitution today, is the final homeland for all its people — one land, one people, and one set of institutions within internationally and constitutionally recognized borders. But this “finality” is not merely about preserving a geographic entity; it first and foremost means building a genuine national partnership among all Lebanese — one that is fair and balanced, protects dignity and rights, and acknowledges the existential concerns of Lebanon’s communities. These concerns must not be treated as sectarian demands or temporary political issues, but as fundamental constitutional questions tied to the nature of the state itself, the meaning of partnership, and the guarantees of shared coexistence.

Lebanon cannot become a true homeland for all its people through slogans alone, but through protecting its land and population, through a clear national consensus rejecting occupation and aggression, and through full commitment to the Lebanese people’s right to defend their country, sovereignty, and dignity — particularly in the face of what the statement describes as ongoing Zionist occupation and ambitions.

Accordingly, Hezbollah says that all projects of partition, division, federalism, or resettlement — regardless of the labels used to promote them — contradict the essence of the Lebanese Constitution and the idea of a united Lebanon for all its citizens. The statement rejects the creation of rival entities, sectarian cantons, security zones, or disguised separatist projects that could turn Lebanon’s diversity into a justification for fragmentation, conflict, or reliance on foreign powers, threatening the unity of the land, the people, and state institutions.

The statement argues that Lebanon’s sectarian political system is no longer capable of producing a fair, effective and stable state. It says true commitment to the constitution does not come from freezing its provisions or applying them selectively, but from fully implementing the constitutional reforms laid out in the Taif Agreement without omission or political manipulation. Chief among these reforms, it says, is the constitutional goal of abolishing political sectarianism as a necessary step toward developing Lebanon’s political and social contract and ensuring fair participation for all Lebanese in governing their country and institutions.

At the same time, abolishing political sectarianism does not mean erasing communal identities or removing safeguards for different groups. Rather, building a state of equal citizenship that reassures all communities, protects everyone’s rights and prevents the state from being monopolized or used as a tool of domination by one side over another. There can be no real reform without genuine partnership, no partnership without justice and no justice without serious political reform consistent with both the constitution and the spirit of the Taif Agreement.

In this context, we affirm that resisting occupation and aggression is not a violation of the state or the constitution, but a legitimate national right protected by the principles of the Lebanese Constitution and by Lebanon’s Arab and international commitments. No political or governmental decision can strip the Lebanese people of what it calls their natural right to defend their land, nor remove legitimacy from resistance against occupation. The constitution’s link to the Arab League Charter cannot be separated from Arab texts affirming the right of peoples to resist foreign occupation and liberate their land.

The Taif Agreement itself — through its emphasis on taking all necessary measures to liberate Lebanese territory and its reaffirmation of the 1949 Armistice Agreement — leaves no ambiguity in defining the relationship with “Israel” as one of hostility, occupation and permanent threat, rather than normalization, surrender or acceptance of the status quo. For this reason, we consider attempts to strip Lebanon of its elements of strength while occupation, aggression and threats continue amount to a departure from both the Taif Agreement and the amended constitution.

We affirm that the centenary of the constitution should become an opportunity to fully implement the Taif Agreement and constitutional provisions without selectivity, protect Lebanon from aggression, reject foreign tutelage and oppose partition, federalism and resettlement projects. Lebanon cannot be built through external dictates, protected through reliance on foreign powers, or stabilized by ignoring the concerns of its major communities.

The occasion should serve as a chance to restore the state from paralysis, sovereignty from dependency, partnership from quota-sharing, reform from selectivity and unity from fragmentation projects. Lebanon can only survive as one united country — sovereign, independent, just toward all its citizens, resistant to occupation, and rejecting all forms of guardianship, mandate or external projects seeking to force the Lebanese to abandon their rights to their land, state and future.

In closing, we emphasize that the Lebanese Constitution is not a static historical document, but an ongoing national covenant that should guide the reform of the state, the protection of sovereignty, the preservation of national partnership, and the building of a Lebanon worthy of all its people.