A deadly explosion in Lebanon that killed six soldiers during an army inspection of what was described as a Hezbollah-linked munitions site has reignited a volatile debate over the country's security architecture, just two days after the Lebanese cabinet accepted a US-proposed ceasefire framework. The blast prompted a wave of international condolences and renewed calls from some quarters for the Lebanese Armed Forces to be the country's sole armed authority.
According to Turkish ex-diplomat Engin Solakoğlu, the sequence of events and the incident are intertwined with Washington's regional design and Lebanon's domestic fault lines. The ceasefire blueprint references three pillars: the 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon's civil war; the Lebanese Constitution; and UN Security Council resolutions, notably 1Resolution 701 (2006). He contends that the plan juxtaposes documents with clashing implications for Hezbollah's arsenal. While Taif's demobilization of militias left Hezbollah outside its scope, Resolution 1701 envisages the area south of the Litani River under the control of the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL, with Hezbollah vacating that zone and creating an effective path toward its disarmament.
The blast triggered immediate blame toward Hezbollah from Saudi-funded Islamist outlets and Lebanon's US-, Saudi- and Israel-aligned political actors, Solakoğlu writes, who argued the incident proves the army must be the only armed force in the country. He frames the reaction as part of a larger effort to constrain or dismantle the group under the guise of a "peace" arrangement.
Solakoğlu argues the US-backed plan risks setting the stage for an internally driven confrontation with Hezbollah, aided by local partners, that could fragment Lebanon and leave Israel with extensive freedom of military action. He characterizes the initiative as one that would "silence the guns" only to allow external military power to define political outcomes.
He cites veteran regional journalists Hala Jaber and Elias J. Magnier as describing the package not as a genuine solution but as a "liquidation plan" for Lebanon. In his view, the explosion that killed the six soldiers may serve as an early signal in a broader effort to catalyze a domestic conflict.
Expanding the lens to Syria, Solakoğlu warns that similar external blueprints—whether labeled federal, confederal, or otherwise—threaten to redraw borders and pit communities against one another under what he derides as a misnamed "Pax Americana."
Bringing the critique home, he accuses segments of Turkey's political spectrum of "preference-based blindness," recognizing imperial overreach in the Levant while failing to confront comparable agendas domestically. He concludes with a warning that Turkey should not surrender to what he calls "Trump's real-estate men," alongside racist and religious reactionary forces, or to those he says enable them through selective political vision.
The cause of the Lebanese blast, the full details of the ceasefire plan, and official attributions have not been independently verified in this report beyond Solakoğlu's account.
Photo: Generated by Gemini AI.