Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, DC.
Will Lebanon Disarm Hezbollah, or Not?
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-09-09 09:00 - Reading : 6 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Hezbollah United States
The Lebanese cabinet heard, on Friday, a presentation from Army Chief Rodolphe Haykal on a confidential plan to monopolize arms, as tasked by the government on August 5. The cabinet then issued a statement, and Information Minister Paul Morcos held a press conference. The vague responses left observers divided, with each side interpreting the ...
What if Israel Was Right and the Arabs Were Wrong?
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-09-02 10:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Arabs United States
For over five decades, many Arab leaders have blamed Israel’s alleged intransigence, belligerence, and unfulfilled promises for the persistent failure to achieve Arab-Israeli peace. Yet, Lebanon’s handling of the November 2024 Cessation of Hostilities agreement with Israel tells a different story—one where Lebanese leaders, particularly ...
Syria’s Agreement with Israel Is Not as Promising as Advertised
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-08-26 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Syria United States
The world is celebrating the anticipated signing of a security agreement between Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Israel, hailed as evidence of Sharaa’s moderation and a departure from his radical Islamist past. However, this narrative is misleading. Islamist doctrine permits, and even encourages, temporary truces—up to 10 years—with ...
Assad Is Gone. The Syrian Problem Persists
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-08-12 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Syria Hezbollah Ahmad el Sharaa
Nine months after Bashar al-Assad's fall and Ahmad al-Sharaa's rise to power, the UN Security Council met to address Syria’s ongoing crisis. The Council urged Damascus to establish a government “of the Syrians, by the Syrians, for the Syrians.” Despite the change in leadership, the Security Council views Syria as a failing state. Damascus ...
Lebanon’s Death by a Thousand Hezbollah Cuts
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-08-05 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Nawaf Salam Joseph Aoun Nabih Berri
It took Lebanon’s cabinet six months to even begin discussing the fate of Hezbollah’s arsenal. Whatever decision emerges will go to the Higher Defense Council for further deliberation and planning, then to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to devise an implementation strategy. If each step takes as long as the first, disarming Hezbollah could be ...
Replacing Iran with Turkey Is a Recipe for Disaster in Syria
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-07-29 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Syria Turkey United States Iran
The Syrian revolution was not an uprising for liberty, freedom, or democracy. It was a manifestation of Sunni Islamists, backed by Turkey and Qatar, venting their rage against the rule of Assad, supported by Shia Islamist Iran. Syria’s Sunni Islamists did not care that Assad was a brutal dictator; they sought to replace him with their own ...
Why No States for the Druze or the Kurds?
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-07-22 15:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Syria Middle East Druze Kurds United States
Self-determination in the Middle East is inconsistent. For Muslim Palestinians, statehood is seen as an unfulfilled destiny. Yet for religious minorities like the Druze or ethnic groups like the Kurds, pursuing sovereignty is branded as betrayal or capitulation to imperialism. There’s no clear logic to why Israel should be divided into two ...
Hezbollah Is a State within the State, Not Only “Heavy and Medium” Weapons
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-07-15 10:20 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Hezbollah Syria Iraq United States
In policy, simplicity is valuable; naiveté is catastrophic. Lebanon has by now diluted UNSCR 1701 from dismantling Hezbollah’s militia, arms production, and illicit funding to merely surrendering “heavy and medium” weapons, or as U.S. Envoy Tom Barrack frames it: Hezbollah must hand over weapons that threaten Israel. Such oversimplification ...
Has America Reversed Itself on Hezbollah?
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-07-08 14:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon USA Hezbollah
US Envoy to Syria and Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack has reversed three decades of US policy by no longer labeling Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The shift de-internationalizes the issue of the Iranian proxy militia, whose disarmament is mandated by UN Security Council resolutions and the November ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and ...
Disarming Hezbollah Is Here, Lebanon’s Peace with Israel Is Next
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-07-01 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Syria Iran Hezbollah United States
Now that the leaders of Lebanon are certain that Israel and America would not shy away from using force against Iran when need be, and now that they are sure that the bark of China and Russia in the Middle East is louder than their bite, Beirut is finally moving on Hezbollah’s arms. Lebanon’s normalization with Israel will come next. Druze ...
Debating Tom Friedman on ‘Global Struggle’
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-06-24 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Iran United States Donald Trump Middle East
I have great admiration for Thomas Friedman and have long followed his writings. He was instrumental in shaping my support for democracy when he argued that two democracies would not go to war. He supported toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, as I did, and we both believe that the nation-state is, in some ways, a defunct concept. Today, ...
Yet Another ‘Divine Victory’
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-06-17 12:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Iran Iraq United States
No matter the outcome of the war between Iran and Israel, Tehran will claim victory. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has already cited the Quranic verse “a victory from God and an imminent conquest.” Middle East observers have seen this movie many times, and it always ends the same: with its military might, Israel prevails—while a ...
The Iranian Regime of War and Death
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-06-10 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Iran America
When I was in elementary school in Baghdad, in the early 1980s, teachers took us to the streets to shout angry slogans against “Khomeini the Hypocrite” for refusing to end Iran’s war with Iraq. Little did I know that, decades later and well into middle age, I would still be discussing the seemingly endless wars driven by the Islamist ...
As Iran Retreats, Islamist Turkey and Qatar Surge in Lebanon
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-06-03 10:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Lebanon Iran Qatar United States Saudi Arabia
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, a Sunni, entered the stadium of Beirut’s Sports City to watch the classic football game between the two rival teams Nijmeh and Ansar. When the Shia supporters of Nijmeh saw Salam, they started shouting slogans in support of Hezbollah and its late chief Hassan Nasrallah. The Sunni fans of Ansar fired back, ...
Time to Resettle Palestinians Outside Lebanon
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-05-27 11:20 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Palestine United States Arabs
Lebanon has announced a plan to disarm Palestinian refugee camps, a step in the right direction. But disarmament is not enough. Lebanon needs a hard divorce from the Palestinians and their cause and should ask the UN to resettle 174,000 Palestinians, classified as refugees, in a third country. The founding literature of the UN Relief and Works ...
Lebanon Should Take a Cue from al-Sharaa - and Talk to Israel
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-05-20 16:48 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Syria United States Donald Trump
A joke has it that Syria’s self-proclaimed president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, offered to build a Trump Tower in Damascus to make up for the two New York towers that Al-Qaeda, al-Sharaa former organization, destroyed on 9/11, killing 2,753 Americans. Times are changing. Since October 7, Iran has been begging America for a nuclear deal that ...
Lebanon Is Finally on the Right Track
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-05-13 15:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Hezbollah Syria Middle East
A glimmer of hope can finally be seen in the Middle East and is emanating, surprisingly, from Lebanon, where the state is restoring its sovereignty and shrinking the Hezbollah tumor. More needs to be done. For now, however, the country is on the right track. “It has only been six or seven months,” a senior U.S. official told The Wall Street ...
Lebanon’s Ossified Left and Its Stance on Palestine
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-05-06 15:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Palestine Christian Muslim
After the French Revolution of 1789, the king conceded some of his powers to Parliament. His supporters sat to his right and his opponents to his left. Forever after, the Right denoted supporters of the ruler and traditions, while the Left meant breaking with the old and yearning for the new. But that was only in theory. In practice, as time ...
Carnegie Endowment: “Trusting the Americans Is a Bad Idea”
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-04-29 15:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
USA America United States Donald Trump
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an American think tank, believes that “trusting the Americans is a bad idea.” Carnegie’s Michael Young did not qualify what he meant by “the Americans.” Did he mean the US government? Its policies? Or just all of the Americans, wholesale? Young even took a swipe at the May 17, 1983 ...
Hezbollah to Aoun: Bring It On!
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-04-22 15:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Hezbollah Joseph Aoun Nawaf Salam United States
Hezbollah is thumbing its nose at President Joseph Aoun. In response to the Lebanese President saying that he was in talks with the militia over surrendering its arms, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said, “We will confront whoever assaults the resistance and tries to disarm it the same way we faced Israel.” Now what? While Aoun remained silent, ...
Nuclear Deal or Not, Hezbollah Must Disarm
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-04-15 15:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Hezbollah United States
The Shia of Lebanon who pledge allegiance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei should ask themselves these questions: Why do they boycott American products when Khamenei invites Americans to invest in Iran and promises Washington $4 billion in contracts? Why do these Shia have to live in tents, erected atop their razed homes, and not surrender ...
National Dialogue Is Unconstitutional
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-04-08 15:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Parliament Nawaf Salam Joseph Aoun
When President Joseph Aoun took his oath of office before Parliament, he pledged to uphold the Constitution of Lebanon. Had the President and his Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, declared from the outset that restoring state sovereignty depended on Hezbollah’s willingness to disarm, their oath would have been unnecessary. It is in cases like ...
Pretending to Disarm Hezbollah Won’t Work
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-04-01 15:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Hezbollah Nawaf Salam Joseph Aoun
Lebanon is pretending to disarm Hezbollah and thinks that the world believes it. Then, when the world calls Beirut out, Lebanese officials engage in collective delusion and blame “Israeli aggression” for military escalation. Lebanon is now reneging on the ceasefire and the 1701 enforcement mechanism that it signed, in November, in which it ...
Who Destroyed Lebanon: Hezbollah or the Banks?
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-03-25 15:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Lebanon Hezbollah Banks Parliament
A “bloc” of lawmakers, political parties, media outlets, and non-governmental organizations are peddling a platform that distracts attention from the paramount importance of disarming Hezbollah and instead blames banks for the utter misery that Lebanon finds itself in. Such an argument is either too dumb, or its proponents are too ...
Hezbollah Reneging on Surrendering Its Arms
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-03-18 15:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Hezbollah and its allies – Speaker Nabih Berri, former Minister Najib Mikati, and Hezbollah ministers in the previous cabinet – all signed the ceasefire agreement with Israel that ended the war and that stipulated that arms in Lebanon must be exclusively in the hands of six government military and security agencies. When this happens, ...
Hezbollah’s Comeback Plan and How to Counter It
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-03-11 15:15 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Lebanon Hezbollah Parliament Iran USA
If the glass at your house got shattered during Hezbollah’s war with Israel, the Iran-backed militia would pay you $1,200 to fix it, a hefty sum by Lebanese standards. Reports, perhaps exaggerated, suggest that Hezbollah sits on a $10 billion budget allocated for reconstructing its partisans’ residential and commercial units. Spending at this ...
Lebanon Must Relearn Democracy, Debate Peace with Israel
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-03-04 15:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Democracy Peace
Druze lawmaker Wael Abou-Faour said that U.S. officials have broached the subject of peace between Lebanon and Israel with top Lebanese leaders, but argued that peace would spark clashes and civil strife, and therefore, his bloc thinks that truce with the Hebrew state was the most that Lebanon could accept. The merits of peace aside, ...
Hezbollah Is the Antithesis of Shia Islam
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-02-25 15:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
A video went viral of a Lebanese woman standing at the Beirut Airport and berating other passengers, shouting: “We sacrificed our blood, this is our country, and whoever does not like it should emigrate.” She then held a picture of late Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, pumped her first in the air, and shouted a few slogans. ...
Lebanon’s Neutrality Must Include Arabs vs. Israel
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-02-18 15:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Lebanon Palestine Arab
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam did well by recommending that the different Lebanese factions replace their allegiance to foreign powers with unity and independence, suggesting that he supported Lebanon’s regional and global neutrality. Yet, in the same breath, Salam said that Lebanon must be part of the “Arab solidarity” in support of ...
Hussain Abdul-Hussain from FDD Washington, D.C : Lebanon and Israel Should Start Talking About Peace
Hussain Abdul-Hussain 2025-02-03 20:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
I spent the last decade away from Lebanon in self-imposed exile. I became an intellectual and political pariah for demanding immediate and unconditional peace between Lebanon and Israel. I was told not to show off my Hebrew and to conceal my friendships with Israelis. I was told that I was going too far and that the Lebanese were not there yet. ...