Salem Zahran: Israel seeks to replicate the 'Syrian model' in Lebanon

Media Center Director, Salem Zahran, said Lebanon is divided between two opposing currents—one ready to fully embrace the Abraham Accords and another determined to continue resisting Israel.

Speaking to LBCI’s Nharkom Said TV show, Zahran said President Joseph Aoun stands “in the middle” of these two conflicting approaches.

“What comforts President Aoun is that Saudi Arabia has not joined the normalization track with Israel,” he added.

Zahran warned that if both Syria and Saudi Arabia were to reach an agreement with Israel, Lebanon would find itself “cornered,” making Aoun’s position even more difficult.

He stressed that while war is not inevitable today, it is “inevitable in the future,” adding that both the Israeli-Iranian and Israeli-Lebanese confrontations are bound to happen eventually.

According to Zahran, the only factor currently preventing war is U.S. President Donald Trump.

He claimed that Israel seeks to replicate the “Syrian model” in Lebanon through occupation and military intervention. “We are caught between internal conflict and Israeli aggression,” he said, adding that “there is no real solution at the moment.”

Zahran noted that “all the conditions for war are present,” though its timing depends on several factors. He suggested that a major confrontation might ultimately be the only path toward a political settlement, calling it preferable to the current state of ongoing skirmishes and drone attacks.

On the parliamentary elections, Zahran said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri considers the current electoral law to be valid and plans to review the new draft proposed by the government.

He affirmed that MPs from the Amal Movement and Hezbollah would remain firm on issues related to the expatriate voting law.

Zahran also revealed that a prior understanding between the president and the Amal-Hezbollah duo aimed to postpone the elections by two months and cancel expatriate voting, but positions taken by the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb Party pushed ministers aligned with the president to join that opposing stance.