Lebanon plans to disarm Hezbollah by year end

BEIRUT (Lebanon) (Web News) – Lebanon’s cabinet on Tuesday tasked the army with developing a plan to disarm Hezbollah by year end, an unprecedented step since civil war factions gave up their weapons decades ago.

The thorny decision follows heavy US pressure and comes as part of implementing a November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and militant group Hezbollah including two months of all-out war.

The cabinet held a nearly six-hour cabinet session on Tuesday headed by President Joseph Aoun on disarming the group, which emerged badly weakened from the latest war, with its arsenal pummelled and its senior leadership decimated.

The Iran-backed group is the only faction that kept its weapons after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of “resistance” against Israel, which occupied the country’s south until 2000.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the government “tasked the Lebanese army with setting an implementation plan to restrict weapons” to the army and other state forces “before the end of this year”.

Under the ceasefire, government authorities including the army and internal security forces should be the exclusive bearers of weapons in Lebanon.

The cabinet is to continue discussions this week on a proposal from US envoy Tom Barrack that includes a timetable for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Information Minister Paul Morcos said Hezbollah-affiliated Health Minister Rakan Nassereldine and Environment Minister Tamara Elzein, who is affiliated with its ally the Amal movement, “withdrew from the session because they did not agree with the cabinet decision”.

Long the strongest political force in Lebanon — with detractors accusing it of using the threat of its weaponry to impose its will on domestic decisions — Hezbollah has also seen that influence diminish since the conflict.

The group’s chief Naim Qassem, in a televised address while the cabinet meeting was underway, said it would not disarm while Israeli attacks continue.

“Any timetable presented for implementation under… Israeli aggression cannot be agreed to,” he said.

Israel has kept up raids on Lebanon despite the November truce, mostly saying it is striking Hezbollah targets, and has threatened to keep doing so until the group has been disarmed.

On Tuesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike in Brital in the country’s east killed one person.

“Are we being asked to engage in dialogue, or to surrender our weapons without dialogue?” Qassem said.

Hezbollah supporters on mopeds and motorbikes roamed Beirut’s southern suburbs where the group enjoys strong support, brandishing the party’s yellow flag and pictures of its leaders, an news Agency photographer said.

Qassem criticised the US envoy’s plan on disarming the group.

“Whoever looks at the deal Barrack brought doesn’t find an agreement but dictates,” he said, arguing that “it removes the strength and capabilities of Hezbollah and Lebanon entirely.”

Last month, Barrack urged Lebanon to “act now” to impose a state weapons monopoly.

A Lebanese official with knowledge of the talks told AFP on condition of anonymity that Hezbollah will not surrender its weapons “without something in return — the Americans know this well”.

Aoun last week said Lebanon was committed to removing “weapons from all armed groups including Hezbollah” and seeing them surrendered to Lebanon’s army.

Lebanon is at “a crucial stage” and must choose “between collapse and stability”, Aoun had said.

The international community has linked its support for the crisis-hit country to disarming the group, while Washington has failed to provide guarantees it will prevent Israel from attacking Lebanon.

Qassem warned Israel against launching any new “large-scale aggression” because “if it does, Hezbollah will go on the defensive, “and this defence will lead to rockets falling inside the Israeli entity”.

Before discussing the fate of its weapons, which it considers a matter of domestic defence strategy, Hezbollah has demanded that reconstruction of areas destroyed during the war begin.

It has also demanded that Israel stop its attacks, withdraw from five border areas it has occupied since the war and release Lebanese prisoners.

Ahead of the cabinet meeting, David Wood from the International Crisis Group said the militant group could apply pressure by objecting officially or encourage its supporters to demonstrate but a domestic confrontation was “not in Hezbollah’s interest”.