Lebanon cannot achieve lasting peace, rebuild its institutions or regain full control of its territory while an armed organization answers to Tehran rather than Beirut.

The latest confrontation over Ali Al-Taher ridge offers Lebanon yet another stark reminder of the fundamental problem confronting the country: the continuing existence of an armed Hezbollah outside the authority of the Lebanese state.

The ridge, located north of the Litani River and overlooking strategically important terrain around Nabatiyeh, was proposed for evacuation and transfer to the Lebanese army. Hezbollah rejected the proposal. The consequence was predictable. Rather than seeing the Lebanese flag raised over the position, Lebanon watched Israeli forces take operational control of the area, destroying tunnels and underground facilities belonging to Hezbollah.

That outcome should force a difficult question: who is actually preventing Lebanon from exercising sovereignty over its own territory?

The answer is increasingly difficult to avoid.

Hezbollah’s refusal to relinquish the ridge was not simply another tactical decision in a long-running conflict. It represented a direct challenge to the Lebanese state’s authority. It also exposed the fundamental contradiction at the heart of Hezbollah’s political narrative: an organization that claims to defend Lebanon continues to maintain an independent military structure capable of overriding decisions made by the Lebanese government and armed forces.

A genuine national resistance movement should ultimately strengthen the state it claims to defend. Hezbollah has instead created a parallel system of military power, political influence and economic networks that makes the Lebanese state weaker and more vulnerable.

That is why the argument over Hezbollah cannot be reduced to the familiar question of resistance versus Israel. The real question facing Lebanon is much more basic: Will Lebanon be a sovereign state with one legitimate authority over weapons and the use of force, or will it remain a state within which an externally aligned armed organization retains veto power over national decisions?

The distinction matters enormously.

Lebanon is attempting to move toward a framework that could eventually end the recurring cycle of war with Israel. The Lebanese government........

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