Lebanese journalist Rami Naim: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the root of Lebanon’s misfortunes

BEIRUT — In recent televised appearances and radio interviews, Lebanese journalist Rami Naim issued a stark ultimatum to the region’s power brokers: negotiations with Iran should not proceed until Iran’s clerical regime has fallen. On Suroyo TV’s From Lebanon, Naim described Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as “the root of our misfortunes,” castigating Lebanon’s sectarian paralysis under the shadow of Hezbollah and Tehran.

“For 40 years,” he said, “we’ve been forced to choose between bowing to the guardianship of the jurist or being labeled Zionists.” He added that the real battle is not with Israel but with the ideology emanating from Tehran, which views Lebanese lives as “fuel” for its proxy conflicts.

Naim has built his career on confrontations with Lebanon’s dominant Shiite movement. A former correspondent for Voice of Lebanon radio, he gained notoriety in April 2024 when the Lebanese Army briefly arrested him after he threatened in a live broadcast to fire on security forces if they favored Hezbollah over dissidents. His subsequent apology did little to deter the journalist’s wave of outspoken commentary about Hezbollah’s weapons and Hassan Nasrallah’s leadership.

On 18 June 2024, Naim survived what he described as an assassination attempt in the upscale Verdun district of West Beirut. He was seated with a colleague in a coffee shop when approximately 20 armed men, whom he accused of Hezbollah affiliation, burst in. “They struck me with their pistols, put a gun to my head, and threatened my friend with a weapon to the stomach,” Naim later recounted on the political website Assiyassa. He was hospitalized at St. George Hospital in Achrafieh and promptly transferred his case to Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who urged judicial authorities to pursue the attackers.

The journalist’s assault sparked swift condemnation across Lebanon’s media and political spectrum. Dr. Amine Iskandar, head of the Syriac Maronite Union, tweeted his “full support” for Naim and decried the “illegal weapons” that endanger all Lebanese. Yet no formal accusation has been filed against Hezbollah, and the attack underscored the party’s ability to intimidate critics with near impunity.

Full support to our friend journalist and Sovereigntist Rami Naim attacked by the illegal weapons pic.twitter.com/OM5LHXjva2

— ܬܐܘܕܪܘܣ ܒܪܝܘܠܝܘܣ ܐܠܟܣܢܕܪ Amine Bar-Julius Iskandar (@Amineiskandar2) June 18, 2024

In his Suroyo TV address, Naim outlined a radical vision for Lebanon’s future: a new Middle East in which “we live peacefully together, free of wars, and sectarian strife,” possible only if Tehran’s “guardianship” system is dismantled. He professed no love for violence, yet he refused to rule out further Israeli strikes on Iranian assets, arguing that Israel has already employed targeted killings against Iranian nuclear scientists without igniting full-scale war. “If Iran wants to negotiate, it must first zero out uranium enrichment,” he said, predicting that Khamenei would balk at any genuine offer of capitulation.

In a separate interview with Plan B Media, Naim declared, “Khamenei is finished,” and predicted that Lebanon’s Shiite base — long a reservoir of support for Tehran — will soon revolt when its own leaders, rather than foreign patrons, are left to answer for Lebanon’s collapse. He urged Lebanese political figures, particularly Hezbollah’s hierarchy, to “retire from public life” or be “deported to Iran or Najaf,” arguing that the party’s remaining popular base could help rebuild the country if freed from its current leadership.

Despite his incendiary pronouncements, Naim has also praised what he termed positive steps by Hezbollah, including the group’s recent decision — following a direct order from Syraic-Maronite President Michel Aoun — to refrain from overtly intervening in the wider Iran–Israel conflict. “This shows Hezbollah is no longer religiously subservient to Khamenei,” Naim asserted, extending an olive branch to rank-and-file members whom he described not as enemies but as “fellow Lebanese we must bring back into the national fold.”

Rami Naim’s trajectory — from combative broadcaster to victim of daylight violence — highlights Lebanon’s shrinking space for critical journalism and the intensity of regional rivalries that play out on its streets. His calls for the end of Iran’s revolutionary regime and a reimagined Lebanese secular unity now resonate amid mounting frustration over the country’s deterioration. Whether his vision can withstand the threats arrayed against him remains an open question — but his courage in speaking out against two of the region’s most formidable forces has undeniably made him one of Lebanon’s most consequential dissidents.