At the end of the week, Lebanon stands in a middle ground between Paris with its good intentions through the preparatory meeting that was held, and New York with what its anticipated General Assembly will carry. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has headed there, preceded by a controversial foreign minister. Waiting for him here is an energy minister who sounded the alarm so he wouldn't bear alone the burden of a cut-off electricity supply, hinting at a set of options if his final appeal is not met. Along with the appeal, whispers emerged concerning the possibility of changing a number of ministerial names that were placed in the category of low productivity or effectiveness. However, government sources denied to Al-Jadeed any possibility of this kind, considering that if this were to happen, it might disrupt the delicate balance upon which the government was formed—a matter understood by the various political parties participating in the current government. With renewed parliamentary confidence, the Prime Minister carries the Lebanese fireball to place it inside the corridors of the United Nations and on the table of its General Assembly, which is held this year under the slogan 'Restoring Trust and Managing Transition.' With the intention of transitioning from Lebanon the crisis to Lebanon the capable state, Salam will present hot topics, from ongoing Israeli attacks to anticipated negotiations, pilot area challenges, and verification mechanisms, all the way to the end of the UNIFIL mission and the search for an alternative or framework that prevents the South from falling into the circle of a UN vacuum. The Washington stopover will be the most important, with a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where the center for sponsoring the framework agreement is located, which is staggering between repeated attacks and faltering negotiations searching for a date, a framework, and executive authority. Lebanon remains at the mercy of waiting: no truce dispels the anxiety, no negotiations open a door to a solution, and no guarantees prevent the South from remaining on the stove of probabilities—among them what was raised by the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, that the Israeli army will remain in the South until the Lebanese army becomes strong. In this distance between Paris, Rome, the South, and New York, the Lebanese state moves on a highly delicate line: supporting the army, preventing a vacuum, protecting negotiations, and consolidating the state's presence. These are files that President
Joseph Aoun carried to the Paris conference and that Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is carrying to the discussion table at the United Nations. The Lebanese scene today is not just a scene of waiting; it is a race against time: either promises turn into reality, reality into a state, and transition into stability, or Lebanon remains suspended in the grey zone, waiting for others to decide the shape of the next phase. Here, the former president of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, appeared from a broader perspective, considering that there is a potential way out of this situation by imposing the Islamabad Agreement and the necessity of applying a truce with the Houthis. Thus, Jumblatt places the Lebanese track within an interconnected regional framework starting from the South and reaching the Strait of Hormuz in a political and military entanglement where the probabilities of confrontation oscillate with the chances of settlement.