00:00You've been brokering peace. It sounds like your whole life, including that example you gave in Lebanon when you were when you were newly married.
00:09Again, you brokered peace in Ecuador and between Ecuador and Peru in 1998.
00:15Your peace brokering skills would obviously be in great demand were you to become the UN Secretary General.
00:21There are flashpoints all around the world. And since we've talked about Lebanon already, let's let's zero in on Lebanon a little bit more.
00:28I mean, 2026 could be a really important year for the country. President Aoun has a very tough job.
00:36Disarming Hezbollah is something he's been tasked with doing. How do you rate his progress?
00:42And do you feel like Washington thinks he's done enough?
00:46Yes, I think and I thank President Aoun really very much first for nominating me, but also for his vision.
00:54Don't forget that he was the general, you know, for the head of the of the army.
01:01And he understands the problems very well. And he has created a great cabinet.
01:10Also the cabinet. I also admire very much Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
01:18So both of them have done a good group of people from different things that they they are working together and they have this kind of a mission.
01:28I think it's working. I believe that it needs more from the Lebanese in general, because you put two Lebanese and they don't agree.
01:38So you have to put them together. You have to bring them together and say, what do you prefer? It's Lebanon before religion. It's Lebanon before your personal interest is Lebanon that it's mission.
01:49It's like the Pope Paul, what he said, it means the Lebanon of the mission. It's not just the country. It's a mission.
01:59It's an example to the world of 19 different religions living together in a small place.
02:03When I arrived to Lebanon in the 60s, late 60s, it was I wouldn't have changed Lebanon for anything.
02:10It was paradise. It was you can go at night at two in the morning, drive everywhere in the mountains.
02:17And I love driving and I used to go in my car and go everywhere. And I was a teenager and you feel safe and everybody loves you.
02:25The mountains, they were living together, all religions. It was an example to the world.
02:29Tourism was everywhere. They want to go to Lebanon. You never ask anyone until now.
02:33They all want to go to Lebanon. So tourism, the banking sector, everything, you name it.
02:38Well, the civil war happens. And when you start something and you don't put the past at rest, nothing changes.
02:49You have to turn the page, put the past at rest, because when something stays there and the parents teach their children and their children, their children to hate,
02:59the hatred becomes more hate and there will never be again. It's difficult.
03:04But now I assure you, the new generation of Lebanon, they're all one piece.
03:09I'm talking about my children and I'm talking about the children that I speak with the youth.
03:13I used to take advice from my children. Now I take advice from my grandchildren because they know even more.
03:18They are born with a chip inside. And you speak with the young generation, Lebanese generation in Lebanon and outside Lebanon.
03:25We have the success of the Lebanese outside Lebanon is immense. Why not in Lebanon?
Comments