On 26 June 2026, the Lebanese government and the Zionist entity, under the auspices of the United States, announced the signing of a so-called "framework agreement" that poses an extreme danger to the people, land and future of Lebanon. In reality, this agreement provides only a framework for the surrender of South Lebanon, its people, its villages and its land; normalization with the Zionist entity; attacks against the Lebanese Resistance -- the sole source of self-defense for the Lebanese people against ongoing Zionist aggression; submission to United States tutelage and Zionist occupation; relinquishment of the legal, political and natural rights of the Lebanese people; and abandonment of the dozens of Lebanese prisoners currently held in occupation prisons.
As the International Campaign to Free Lebanese Prisoners, we join the Lebanese people, a broad array of political movements, and the Resistance -- and the global movement that stands against U.S. imperialism and Zionist colonialism -- in expressing our outrage at this dangerous "framework agreement," and our commitment to work for the liberation of Lebanese prisoners and of all Lebanese land from the Zionist occupation entity.
The Framework Agreement is Null and Void
First, we emphasize that the "framework agreement" and its attached goals cannot be imposed upon the Lebanese people or forced into implementation simply through a set of signatures in Washington, D.C. A wide range of political forces, including the Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri, have declared their rejection of the document. Furthermore, the future of the South, its liberation and reconstruction, the expulsion of the occupation, and the freedom of the prisoners, is in the hands of its people and its Resistance, not in the hands of those who embrace the South's killers in the U.S. capital. The Zionist invaders, backed, armed and funded by the United States, were unable to achieve their goals through military might, despite their slaughter and destruction against the people and land of Lebanon; they will not be able to achieve them through a document that remains, in the words of Sheikh Naim Qassem, "null and void."
Every achievement that has been made for Lebanon has been through the hands of the Resistance and its sacrifices, and that of its popular base. It is the Resistance that has blocked the path of the enemy and has ensured that the enemy did not achieve its goals on the battlefield. Despite the bitterness of the massacres and destruction carried out by the enemy, the reality since March 2 throughout the region has proven that the U.S. and "Israel" utterly failed in their attempts to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that anyone who relied on the mirage of the defeat of the Lebanese Resistance had fallen into a trap of delusion.
The Framework Agreement Is a Recipe for War and Occupation, not Peace and Sovereignty
The paper is not a ceasefire, and certainly not a "peace agreement." It does not even honestly present itself as a disarmament agreement — for while it demands the disarmament of the Resistance defending Lebanon, it welcomes the hostile armaments of the invading Zionist entity deployed throughout the South. It is a paper for surrender and defencelessness in the face of an entity with which Lebanon has remained in a state of war since 1949. It fails to even recognize the "Israeli" occupation of Lebanon for what it is -- an illegitimate occupation, and instead provides a mechanism for the Zionist entity to empty South Lebanon of its population by preventing their return.
In reality, Lebanon is bound by a comprehensive legal framework that defines the Zionist entity as an enemy state. The Boycott Law of 23 June 1955 and all subsequent Lebanese legislation prohibit a wide range of commercial and institutional dealings with the Israeli enemy. The Lebanese Penal Code criminalizes collaboration with or assistance to an enemy state, and the consistent jurisprudence of Lebanese courts has upheld this principle. No executive authority may unilaterally restructure Lebanon's security and political relationship with the enemy without the sanction of the Lebanese parliament. No ambassadorial signature, no U.S. guarantees or threats, and no security justification can render lawful what the Lebanese legal order expressly forbids -- and this is particularly true when the Lebanese people are left with no security guarantees at all, and are left at the mercy of U.S. and Zionist whims.
This situation is made even more outrageous, as there is a process underway in the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran, in which the Islamic Republic has made unambiguous demands: among them, the end of the Zionist occupation of Lebanese territory and the cessation of Israeli aggression on Lebanon. Iran is defending Lebanese sovereignty in an international forum. In sharp contrast, instead of protecting Lebanon from an aggressive enemy, this "framework agreement" aims to remove Lebanon from the Memorandum of Understanding track -- in order to preserve the Zionist occupation and "freedom of action" in Lebanon. It aims to freeze the conflict at a moment favorable to the occupier, legitimize its remaining presence, and remove the pressure that can actually compel a real withdrawal.
The Zionist Entity is a Permanent Threat to Lebanon, Palestine and the Region
This is not a conflict that began on March 2 of this year, nor in the autumn of 2024, nor in 2006. Lebanon and the Zionist entity have been in a continuous state of war for over seven decades. This is a war the enemy imposed on Lebanon and the entire region since its creation: through the expulsion of the Palestinian people and the theft of the land of Palestine, through twenty-two years of brutal occupation of South Lebanon, through the aggression and war of 2006, where it was defeated through the might of the Resistance; through repeated assassinations of Lebanese leaders, and through its ongoing bombardment of Lebanon's villages, infrastructure, and people that has never truly ceased.
The Zionist entity and its leadership openly boast of their vision for "Greater Israel" in public statements and policy documents. This vision that demands the depopulation and occupation of Lebanon and the destruction of the Resistance that stands as the primary force preventing them from achieving their goals.
It is the enemy that has never respected a ceasefire, never honored a UN resolution, never withdrawn to internationally recognized borders in good faith. Since October 8, 2023 to today, there are over 8,588 martyrs in Lebanon, and 29,801 wounded at the hands of the invading Zionist enemy; in 1982, there were 17,825 martyred at its hands in Lebanon, and another 30,203 wounded. Between 27 November 2024 and 2 March 2026, the Zionist entity committed over 15,000 breaches of the ceasefire, including the abduction of over half of the Lebanese prisoners it holds in its dungeons. The Lebanese people have a legal and a natural right to resist occupation that cannot and will not be abrogated by such a paper.
An Attempt to Manufacture Civil War and Internal Destruction
It is clear that the true purpose of this agreement is neither security nor peace. It is the deliberate creation of the conditions for internal Lebanese conflict and a new civil war. It openly aims to transform the Lebanese army from a site of national unity into one of sectarian division and war against the people of the South. The agreement does not empower the Lebanese army to protect Lebanon from Zionist occupation; instead it seeks to deploy the army to disarm Hezbollah -- to defend the occupation from the Lebanese people.
"Israeli" analysts and experts are ever-present in the media, boasting of achieving their goal of turning their aggression on Lebanon into a Lebanese internal conflict. It is only through the wisdom, conscience and discipline of the Resistance that despite extreme sectarian incitement by fascist forces, open conflict and civil war have been prevented. That the U.S. and "Israel" are unable to achieve their goal of civil war in Lebanon does not in any way lessen or negate their intentions through this dangerous project.
For decades, American military assistance to Lebanon has come conditions: the army may be equipped to conduct internal security operations, to manage borders, to suppress unrest, but it shall not be equipped with the offensive and air-defense capabilities that would allow it to meaningfully challenge Israeli air superiority, naval dominance, or ground incursions. The army is offered a role as a peacekeeping and policing force on terms set by the enemy, in a geographic zone whose parameters the enemy will interpret at will, with no corresponding obligation on the Zionist entity to cease its violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
The Resistance is the Sword and Shield of Lebanon
This Campaign affirms, without equivocation, the right of the Lebanese people to resist occupation in all its forms. The Islamic Resistance, Hezbollah, is the primary organized expression of that right.
It was Hezbollah that liberated the South in May 2000, achieving what no diplomatic process had accomplished. It was Hezbollah that stood against the full military might of the Zionist entity in 2006 and denied it victory. It is Hezbollah that has, through its deterrence and sacrifice, imposed a cost on continued aggression that no UN resolution and no American guarantee ever imposed.
The people of South Lebanon know who has defended their villages, their dignity, and their prisoners. As in Palestine, the Resistance is not a problem to be managed. It is the shield of Lebanon against a hostile aggressor, and it is the sword with which the Lebanese have exercised their sovereign right to self-defense.
The Right to Accountability and the Liberation of the Prisoners
Further, the "framework agreement" purports to go even further in its Article 13, the sole article in the paper that mentions the Lebanese prisoners -- only to dismiss and abandon them. By signing on to this article, the Lebanese authority purports to relinquish the right of the victims of Zionist war crimes to pursue those responsible for the destruction of thousands of homes, businesses, farms and institutions in South Lebanon, the Beqaa and Dahiyeh, through the "cessation of all hostile actions in international political and legal fora." As noted by international law expert Craig Mokhiber, 'Article 47 of the 4th Geneva Convention explicitly states that protected persons in occupied territories cannot be deprived of the benefits of the Convention“by any agreement concluded between the authorities of the occupied territories and the Occupying Power.'"
The agreement further states that the parties will "pledge to work towards the search for and return of remains and the release of detainees," and ties this entire clause to seeking "peaceful" relations -- an attempt to whitewash normalization.
The Lebanese prisoners, alongside their over 9,600 Palestinian brothers and sisters in the occupation dungeons, are not a bargaining chip to be tied to spurious claims about the remains of invading Zionist occupation soldiers. By signing this agreement, Lebanese authorities are moving beyond their ongoing and shameful neglect of the prisoners and their families to overt collusion in their continued abduction, abuse and enforced disappearance inside the Zionist prisons.
We join with the Call for Freedom in affirming:
"The rights of our prisoners and abductees is unequivocal: the immediate disclosure of their fate and places of detention, enabling the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit them, ensuring their communication with their families, and their release and liberation without delay...Any Lebanese commitment that infringes upon, obstructs or delays any of these rights constitutes a betrayal of the trust placed in the authority and a blatant abuse of the powers that are supposed to protect the Lebanese people, not compromise them...The President of the Republic and the Prime Minister are well aware that international laws and agreements supersede any official Lebanese-Israeli understanding or collusion, and that the rights of prisoners and abductees are inherent rights that predate and supersede agreements...No normalization with the occupation, no subservience to our oppressors, no relinquishing the freedom of our prisoners, and no silence on treason committed in the name of the state."
As an international campaign, we affirm that we will not abandon our prisoners, nor the people, villages and land of the South, nor the Resistance that defends and protects them. It is Zionism and U.S. imperialism that threaten the sovereignty of Lebanon, and that seek to mortgage its future to a hostile, aggressive occupation entity. We pledge to mobilize, organize and act everywhere for the liberation of the prisoners, full Zionist withdrawal from Lebanon, the end of the occupation of the South, the return of its residents, and its full rebuilding. It is the Resistance that stands on the front lines, in defense of Lebanon -- and indeed, in defense of Palestine, and of humanity itself, and it is our responsibility everywhere to support and strengthen that resistance against all attempts at its destruction.
Freedom for all Lebanese, Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Zionist jails!
Victory to the Resistance, victory for Lebanon!
