On the anniversary of his first year in office, President Joseph Aoun reviewed his government’s achievements and reaffirmed its core commitments: restoring the state’s monopoly of arms, preventing another large-scale war, and pursuing negotiations with Israel to safeguard Lebanese communities and preserve the country’s territorial integrity.
The American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL) commends the Aoun–Salam government for the tangible progress over the past year. By advancing key economic and governance reforms, intensifying efforts to curb illicit finance and drug smuggling, and consolidating state control over arms south of the Litani River, the government has demonstrated a renewed determination to confront long-neglected problems and reassert state authority in the interest of the Lebanese people.
Significant challenges nevertheless remain, particularly as large parts of the country continue to suffer from destruction. The government now faces its most daunting tasks: completing the disarmament of Hezbollah nationwide, reforming the banking and public sectors, adopting policies that attract private sector investment for reconstruction, and ensuring the rights of all citizens to live in a peaceful, democratic and prosperous Lebanon.
In reaffirming the government’s commitment to disarmament, President Aoun rightly underscored that “the capacity to speed up or slow down depend[s] on the means given to the Lebanese Army.” The United States and its allies must therefore ensure that the Lebanese Armed Forces are adequately resourced to disarm non-state actors in other parts of the country while sustaining security and stability in the south.
This critical moment calls on Lebanese leadership to follow through on its commitments to comprehensive reform and the restoration of full state sovereignty with the support of its partners in the United States, the Gulf, and Europe. ATFL believes that Lebanon now has the opportunity and the leadership to complete this vital task and secure a more stable and hopeful future.