What does Lebanon’s future actually look like — from someone living it right now?
In this episode, we sit down live in Beirut with Hadi Damien, Lebanese podcaster and academic for a raw and deeply informed conversation about the forces that have shaped and continue to threaten Lebanese sovereignty.
Born in 1989, the year before the end of Lebanon’s brutal civil war, Hadi grew up navigating Syrian military checkpoints, witnessing political assassinations, and coming of age during the Cedar Revolution.
Is Hezbollah really a Lebanese movement or an Iranian proxy?
Hadi breaks down how Hezbollah was founded through a decree from Khomeini, how its former Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah publicly declared allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader, and why the EU’s distinction between a “political wing” and a “military wing” is according to him, a dangerous fiction that has allowed Hezbollah to run financial operations across Europe.
Can Lebanon ever be free of foreign domination?
We explore whether dismantling Hezbollah would simply replace Iranian influence with Israeli or Western influence and why Heidi believes the answer lies not in outside powers, but in rebuilding a functional Lebanese state with a real rule of law.
What happens next?
With Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, ongoing ceasefire negotiations and a transformed Syria next door, Hadi makes claims that the future is bright, if Lebanon’s political class and its international partners have the integrity to act in Lebanon’s interest, not their own.
