Lebanese president: Israel 'will never be able to achieve their objective'

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has said in an interview with CNN that Israel "will never be able to achieve their objective" of defeating Hezbollah.

"They can invade the whole country, they can flatten the whole country, but they will never be able to achieve their objective," Aoun told Christiane Amanpour.

"Hezbollah is an idea, it's not an objective that you can see, it's not a geographic objective," he said. "It's war amongst people. The battlefield is the people".

He continued: "They've tried it in Gaza. Hamas still exists or not?" 

Aoun insisted that Hezbollah "can only be dealt with domestically".

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun on Israel:

They can invade the whole country, they can flatten the whole country, but they will never be able to achieve their objective.

Hezbollah is not a geographic objective, it's an idea.

It's war amongst the people. The battlefield is… pic.twitter.com/MWedNPQdyg

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 6, 2026