00:00Joining us live now from Beirut for more on the situation in Lebanon is Rima Abdul-Malak,
00:05a former French Minister for Culture, who is now Executive Director of L'Orient Le Jour,
00:11one of Lebanon's leading daily newspapers and its English equivalent, L'Orient Today. Rima,
00:16welcome. Good morning. Great to have you on the show. So can you start by describing to us the
00:22feeling they're on the ground in Lebanon this morning after, I think, what is now seven weeks
00:27of Israeli bombardment? Yes, after seven weeks of war, we're really exhausted and there's a lot of
00:38anger and despair here. But we have this very slight glimmer of hope since yesterday evening with this
00:47historic moment of first step of talks. I can't even say negotiations so far because it looks like
00:54more a staging of negotiations rather than real negotiations with timelines and objectives and
01:00mediators. But still, it's such a historic occasion. And it's maybe our last chance to start
01:09on the good path for a future process leading to maybe peace and stability for the future.
01:15Rima, you speak of a glimmer of hope. But I guess that the elephant in the room in these talks
01:20is
01:20Hezbollah because Israel's war is on that militia group, but it's negotiating with Lebanon.
01:27And does the Lebanese government have any cards to play in these talks?
01:33Of course. And the Lebanese government needs the support of the international community.
01:39France, Europe, the Gulf countries, we need support to the army to re-legitimate the army and give
01:46her means to undertake this long process of reducing Hezbollah's militia and transform it into a more
01:59classical political party. Because Hezbollah won't disappear completely. But as a militia armed by Iran
02:07and funded by Iran, this is not our wish for the future of Lebanon anyway. So that's very clear that
02:15the Lebanese government wants also to get rid of this Iranian occupation on our ground.
02:23And I know that you yourself fled Lebanon when you were just 10 years old, shortly after Israel
02:29occupied the south of the country. Do you fear that we could see a repeat of history here? Because we
02:37have
02:37seen Israel trying to expand what they call the buffer zone in the south.
02:42Yeah, behind me, you have old editions of Lorient Le Jour from 1978, when Israel invaded the south. And
02:51actually Hezbollah was created in 1982 in reaction, in opposition, in resistance, as they say, to the
02:59Israeli occupation. So history told us during more than 40 years that occupation leads to extremism,
03:06leads to fanatism, leads to war and violence. So this is why we are very much concerned about what is
03:13going on now. No ceasefire, but the negotiations are starting. No guarantee that Israel will not
03:21occupy the south again. So this is really not reassuring, because if we start by the same
03:27vicious circle again, no peace is possible.
03:33Okay, Rima Abdulmalak, thank you so much. And I know the reporters of Lorient Le Jour are doing
03:38important work there on the ground documenting what is happening in Lebanon. Thank you for joining us
03:42this morning.
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