At a decisive moment, as the Lebanese state takes a bold step toward negotiations as a gateway to ending the war and halting the collapse, the Secretary-General of the banned organization Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, emerges to tell the Lebanese that what he calls the “resistance” will continue… until “the last breath.”

But the pressing question is: what “resistance” is he talking about?

Is it the one that has led to this total devastation and turned his own people into hostages of an Iranian war?

In his latest message, Qassem spoke of “youth competing to reach the battlefield.” Yet the reality on the ground, through the simplest indicators, has exposed him. The organization that claims to mobilize the masses has failed, over the past two days, to gather more than a few dozen supporters in front of the Grand Serail, an underwhelming scene limited to insults, accusations of treason, and attacks against the Prime Minister and the sovereign choices of the state.

Here, the stark gap between rhetoric and reality becomes evident: an inflated mobilizing discourse… and a shrinking, eroding popular base.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese state is moving forward on a clear path reclaiming decision-making authority, restoring security in Beirut, and opening the door to negotiations with Israel as a realistic option to stop the bleeding. This choice stems from a deep realization that continuing this war means the end of what remains of Lebanon.

Hezbollah, however, insists on demonizing this course through a political and media machine that speaks only the language of treason. It attacks negotiations but offers no alternative except the continuation of war. It is incapable of anything else, holding no vision other than keeping Lebanon an open arena serving Iran’s negotiations with the United States.

Lebanon at a crossroads

Israel is advancing southward, maintaining its military superiority, and continuing to target what remains of Hezbollah capabilities, while the Lebanese people keep paying the price in their lives, their homes, and their economy.

In light of this reality, clinging to the option of “resistance until the last breath” becomes an insistence on collective suicide set against a rescue initiative launched by the Lebanese state.

The harsh truth Hezbollah ignores is that the intensity of military operations may only decrease when a serious political window opens and that window today has a name: negotiations. It is the only available option for a country exhausted by Iran’s wars and its proxies, having paid unbearable costs.

Between a state trying to salvage what can still be saved and a banned organization refusing to acknowledge the scale of the disaster it has caused, the Lebanese stand at a clear crossroads: either move toward a political horizon that may put an end to the war, or remain hostages to an outlawed organization backed by a destructive state called Iran, one that once again leads them toward death in all its forms.

In this context, the Lebanese state must end the causes of war from within and move decisively toward shutting down all war-driven projects and eliminating their justifications.

And if the United States is to release some of the Iranian assets frozen in banks in Qatar and other countries, the Lebanese state must remind it that Iran bears primary responsibility for the destruction of Lebanon. This must be taken into account, and Lebanon’s share must be considered from these assets because the vast majority of the Lebanese people are exhausted from paying, from their own pockets and livelihoods, the price of Iran’s wars on Lebanese soil.