Lebanese cabinet holds more talks on disarming Hezbollah, under US pressure
Lebanon’s cabinet has again met to discuss the disarmament of Hezbollah despite the latter’s earlier rejection of the demands, which have largely been driven by the United States.
Lebanon’s information minister said the cabinet, on Thursday, approved only the objectives of a US proposal for disarming Hezbollah by the end of the year, along with ending Israel’s military operations in the country, but they did not discuss the full details of it.
The talks came two days after ministers announced they were planning to restrict arms to six official forces by the end of the year. Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc accused the government of “slipping into accepting American demands” that would serve Israel’s interests.
Hezbollah ministers and Shia Muslim allies in the Lebanese cabinet withdrew from the cabinet meeting in protest during discussions about the proposal to disarm Hezbollah, three Lebanese political sources told Reuters.
Beirut’s clampdown on Hezbollah comes after prodding from US envoy Tom Barrack, who presented the government with detailed proposals featuring a timetable for disarming the group, even as Israel continued to violate a November truce it signed with Lebanon to end more than a year of hostilities that culminated last year in two months of full-blown war.
The phased proposals aim to “extend and stabilise” the ceasefire, requiring the government to remove Hezbollah’s arsenal under “a detailed [Lebanese army] deployment plan”, and calling on Israel to cease attacks and withdraw from the five positions it continued to hold in south Lebanon after the ceasefire deal was struck, according to a copy of a Lebanese cabinet agenda seen by the news agency Reuters.
After Thursday’s meeting, a US Department of State spokesperson said the US welcomed the Lebanese government’s decision to task the Lebanese Armed Forces to bring all weapons under state control.
Under the truce, Israel was meant to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah, meanwhile, was to pull its fighters north of the Litani River, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the border with Israel, to be replaced by the expanded deployment of the Lebanese army and United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Hezbollah said on Wednesday that it would treat the government’s decision to disarm it “as if it did not exist”, accusing the cabinet of committing a “grave sin”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state TV on Wednesday that this was not the first time that attempts have been made to disarm the Iran-backed group, adding that the final decision rests with the group itself.
“We act as a supporter, but we do not interfere in their decision-making,” Araqchi added.
Citing “political sources”, pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al Akhbar said the group, and its ally the Amal Movement, could choose to withdraw their four ministers from the government or trigger a no-confidence vote by parliament’s Shia bloc, which comprises 27 of Lebanon’s 128 lawmakers.
Israel, which routinely carries out air strikes in Lebanon despite the November ceasefire, has already signalled it would not hesitate to launch destructive military operations if Beirut failed to disarm the group.
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed two people on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Public Health. On Thursday, two Israeli strikes killed six people.
