Bassil in Chouf: Lebanon Is Not Built Through Domination but Through Partnership, and the Lies About Electricity, the Amnesty Law and the Port Explosion Will Be Exposed

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Gebran Bassil said during a dinner organized by the FPM’s Chouf District Committee that “Chouf reflects Lebanon’s reality and its diverse nature. This mountain was a cornerstone of the Lebanese entity, for there is no Lebanon without the Mountain.”
He stressed that “Chouf means a great deal to us in the FPM, and our vision of Lebanon is based on openness, coexistence and acceptance of the other. This is what we believe in and what we struggle for.”
Bassil said: “As we stand here at the heart of the experience of coexistence, we ask ourselves: What kind of Lebanon do we want? An open Greater Lebanon or a closed Lebanon that rejects the other? There is a major difference between saying that we cannot live with them and saying that we cannot live without them.”
He added: “Without exaggeration, we recognize the extent of the differences among us as Lebanese. These differences are not only between sects, but also between regions and even within the same sect. We believe that this diversity is a source of richness. Chouf is truly the place where we can ask: What kind of Lebanon do we want? This question is far more important than whether a government resigns or remains in office, because it is a question over which we, as Lebanese, disagree. Unfortunately, at every juncture, the magnitude of this disagreement becomes apparent.”
Bassil continued: “We used to disagree over sovereignty and try to outbid one another, but when we look back at our history, we see that whenever a powerful country came to impose its influence over our country, the majority of people flocked toward it. This is not the first time the region has witnessed competing axes. We have lived through many such alignments, and there has always been one axis that prevailed over another. The conflicts we are experiencing affect our daily lives, but at their core they run much deeper.”
He stressed that “the Free Patriotic Movement wants an open Lebanon, while at the same time wanting it to be sovereign, free and independent, open to its surroundings and to its own people,” adding that “achieving this is not difficult when we think about our towns and how we can live together.”
Bassil said: “We can live together in our towns and in our country, and this is the fundamental challenge at a time when the country is going through difficulties. Today, we came out of parliamentary sessions questioning the government. The opposition is supposed to be the one holding the government to account, only for it to become clear that the pro-government forces are accommodating the government.”
He stressed that “our goal is not to bring down the government but to correct its performance, because we are responsible. We do not rejoice, as others did, by saying: We were unable to provide electricity, and hopefully others will not be able to either. Lebanon needs a great deal, and every political group that comes to power should be able to show what it has accomplished, so that the group that follows can try to accomplish even more. Unfortunately, our political life has turned into a competition over who can obstruct the other more.”
He added: “During the parliamentary questioning sessions, all our MPs were present, not only to question the government, but to ask it: What are you going to do? The price of a can of gasoline is not high for the opposition and low for the pro-government camp, nor is electricity cut off from one party while being supplied to another. We must understand that we are all in the same boat. If it sinks, we all sink with it, and no one can survive alone.”
Bassil stressed that “by now, we should have learned that this country cannot be built through domination but through partnership, and that it cannot be protected through division but through unity. All these experiences should have taught us that. No one can deny any political group the right to question the government, as they tried to do with us.”
Turning to the electricity sector, Bassil said: “Our major problem in this country is that we are always trying to obscure the truth. There is truth and there are lies. On electricity, they said that we had wasted between $40 billion and $50 billion in the electricity sector. Today, in Parliament, the very same MPs who used to say that we had wasted $40 billion or $50 billion spoke of $22 billion to $24 billion. So where did the rest of that figure go?”
He added: “At the time, they were using false figures. They called this money waste, when in reality it was the cost of a subsidy policy approved by the governments in which they participated and by Parliament, and it was recorded under the electricity sector. They then used the figure to accuse the Free Patriotic Movement of stealing $40 billion or $50 billion. The truth is that this was the cost of a subsidy policy that the FPM opposed and they supported. Every lie eventually comes to an end.”
He continued: “Today, you have come to power and you continue saying the same things, while people are waiting for you to work. In government, you have support, you are in agreement and you are governing on your own. You cannot lie to the Lebanese and tell them that you want to leave the ministry because you are not being allowed to work. Who is preventing you from working? Has the Ministry of Energy submitted any project that was not approved?”
He added: “You told the Lebanese that there was waste in the power ships file. The case went to the judiciary and came to an end. Today, you tell the Lebanese that you want to conduct a forensic audit at the Ministry of Energy. You are wasting time, while the Lebanese want a forensic audit of their bank deposits. You are conducting a forensic audit into the power ships file, and we challenge you to find anything.”
He said: “You are distracting the Lebanese with lies so that you do not have to explain why you have failed to solve a problem such as electricity. After 19 months at the ministry, you should not be talking about what others did; you should act.”
Bassil: You Deprived Chouf of the Bisri Dam So How Did You Protect the Environment?
Bassil addressed the issue of water and dams, asking: “Is it conceivable that a prime minister would come out and say that he will not provide the funds for water? As for the dams that you say you will bring international companies to study, who do you think studied the dams during our time? They were international companies.”
Addressing the audience in Chouf, he added: “You were deprived of the Bisri Dam under the pretext of protecting the environment. So how was the environment protected by dumping chemicals into the dam? Is that how you saved the environment by depriving the Lebanese of 170 million cubic meters of water?”
Bassil then turned to the amnesty law, saying: “Yesterday, a new lie emerged over the amnesty law. Some claimed that there were 40 or 50 people unjustly imprisoned without trial, so they went on to cover up their wrongdoing by legalizing crime in the country. Is it conceivable to release 6,000 criminals from prison?”
He added: “Then, in their eyes, the FPM becomes sectarian and demonstrations are organized. Is it conceivable for Parliament to legalize crime?”
Bassil also addressed the Beirut Port explosion, saying: “Since 2020, you have falsely accused us and said that President Michel Aoun knew. When the report reached President Aoun, he referred it to the Higher Defense Council, and only a few days later the explosion occurred.”
He added: “When the justice minister in 2014 received an official letter from the judiciary and from a foreign state and was informed of the presence of ammonium nitrate, did he not know about it from 2014 until 2020? And did all the security agencies not know?”
He continued: “Every time, you repeat the same lie. It will get you nowhere; rather, it will expose you. Those who are playing this game in the media are known. You are offending the dignity of the victims’ families and obscuring the truth, because when you seek to place responsibility on a party that is not responsible, that means you are concealing the identity of the party that is truly responsible.”
Bassil also addressed developments related to Israel and Hezbollah’s weapons, saying: “Yesterday, you lied to the Lebanese and told them that the framework agreement would lead Israel to withdraw from Lebanon, that once Israel withdrew, the Lebanese Army would take its place, reconstruction would begin, and Lebanon would then deal with the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons.”
He added: “The Israeli side came out and said: As a state, disarm Hezbollah first. Then I will assess the situation, and if I determine that what has been done is sufficient, I will decide whether to carry out a redeployment.”
Bassil concluded: “The Israeli side says every day that it will not withdraw and that it will remain in the security zone. In the end, the lie will be exposed both in practice and in the text.”