Despite growing pressure from Israel’s main ally, the United States, the Lebanese president Joseph Aoun has called for Hezbollah to hand over its weapons to the army. The organization has rejected this request.
Authorities were requesting the Lebanese state’s authority to extend to all its territory, the release of weapons from all armed groups, including Hezbollah, and their handover to the Lebanese army, Aoun said in a televised speech on Thursday at the Defense Ministry’s headquarters.
He added that every party was obligated to “take advantage of this historic opportunity and vehemently oppose the army and security forces’ monopoly on all Lebanese territory” in order to reclaim the confidence of the world.
Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem responded to Aoun’s comments a day later, saying that “anyone calling today for the surrender of weapons, whether internally or externally, on the Arab or international stage, is serving the Israeli project.”
Officials from Hezbollah have stated that they won’t talk about giving up the organization’s remaining weapons until Israel, which it recently engaged in a bloodbath, withdraws from all of Lebanon and stops its attacks.
Aoun addressed Hezbollah’s supporters as an “essential pillar” of society on Thursday, saying, “For the thousandth time, I assure you that my concern about having a state weapons monopoly comes from my concern to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty and borders, liberate the occupied Lebanese territories, and build a state that welcomes all its citizens.”
On October 8, 2023, Israel and Hezbollah began to fight back against Hamas, a Palestinian organization that was facing Israeli attacks. Israel has continued to air attack on Lebanon despite a ceasefire that was reached in November and has threatened to do so until Hezbollah is disarmed.
Hezbollah was ordered to leave its fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire. Israel, in contrast, had intended to evacuate all of its forces from Lebanon, but it has only deployed them in five strategic areas.
Aoun also demanded that Israeli forces be withdrawn, that Lebanese prisoners be released, and that there be an “immediate cessation of Israeli hostilities.”
He said, “We must choose between stability and collapse today.”
Lebanon makes a proposal to disarm Hezbollah
According to a previous UN Security Council resolution, only the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers should be allowed to possess weapons in the country’s south and that all non-state groups should be disarmed.
The Iran-backed political party and armed group’s arsenal before the most recent war was seen as far superior to the army’s, and the organization had a lot of political influence, but that resolution was ignored for years.
According to five sources with knowledge of the situation, the US has been pressing Lebanon to pass a formal cabinet decision authorizing the end of Israeli military operations there.
A plan will be discussed at a cabinet meeting the following week to “establish a time for implementation,” according to Aoun, who said Lebanon had suggested modifications to “ideas” submitted by the US on Hezbollah’s disarmament.
According to the president, the Lebanese proposal would cause “the Israeli hostilities to end immediately” in Lebanon, including air strikes and targeted killings, the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, and the release of Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel, the president added.
Aoun said Lebanon’s proposal also calls for a 10-year commitment from international donors to increase the Lebanese army’s capabilities and for an international donor conference to raise money for the reconstruction of Lebanese areas that were damaged and destroyed during the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict last year.
