Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has said that calls for the Lebanese group’s disarmament serve only Israel, amid pressure from the United States for Beirut to take such steps.
“Those who call for submitting arms practically demand submitting them to Israel … We will not submit to Israel,” Qassem said on Wednesday in a televised address marking the first anniversary of the targeted killing by Israel of senior commander Fuad Shukr.
Hezbollah emerged weakened from a war with Israel last year that eliminated most of the group’s leadership, killed thousands of its fighters and left tens of thousands of its supporters displaced from their destroyed homes.
Sources told Reuters that the US is pushing Lebanon to issue a formal cabinet decision committing to disarm Hezbollah, saying that is needed before talks can resume on a halt to Israeli military operations in the country – which are still taking place despite a ceasefire agreed upon in November last year.
Under the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties to its south.
Hezbollah has publicly refused to hand over its arsenal in full, but has privately weighed scaling it back.
“Those who call for disarmament on a domestic, global or Arab level serve the Israeli project,” Qassem said.
He also said the US was demanding a removal of Hezbollah’s missiles and drones because they “scare” Israel, accusing US special envoy Tom Barrack of calling for disarmament for the sake of Israel and not Lebanon’s own security.
“Israel will not be able to defeat us, and it will not be able to take Lebanon hostage,” he added.
‘Israeli aggression … must stop’
In early July, Barrack met Lebanese officials in Beirut to discuss the disarmament proposal. It would see Hezbollah fully disarmed within four months in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli troops occupying several posts in south Lebanon and a halt to Israeli air strikes that have so far killed thousands of Lebanese nationals.
Hezbollah has been under pressure in recent months both within Lebanon and from Washington to completely relinquish its weaponry.
In his speech, Qassem said he considered the ceasefire agreement to apply “exclusively south of the Litani River”.
“However, if some link weapons to the agreement, I say to them, ‘Weapons are an internal Lebanese affair that has nothing to do… with the Israeli enemy’.”
Under the truce deal, Israel was supposed to have withdrawn all of its troops from Lebanon, but it has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.
“The imminent danger is the Israeli aggression … this aggression must stop,” Qassem said, referring to ongoing Israeli attacks targeting various parts of Lebanon. “All political discourse in the country must be directed towards stopping the aggression, not towards handing over weapons to Israel.”
A Lebanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that “Lebanese authorities are currently under international and regional pressure, with demands that they formally commit to disarming Hezbollah in a cabinet meeting”.
Lebanon’s demand that Israel complete its withdrawal before Hezbollah is disarmed was rejected by the US, a Lebanese source with knowledge of the matter told AFP.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called a cabinet meeting for next week to discuss “the extension of state sovereignty over all its territories exclusively by its own forces”. Leaders who took office after the year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have promised a state monopoly on bearing arms.
The meeting will reportedly also focus on “arrangements for the ceasefire … which include ideas from ambassador Barrack’s proposal regarding its implementation”.
Hezbollah insists Israel must halt its strikes and withdraw from the remaining positions it holds in the south before it will discuss the future of its weapons.