The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group has declared its readiness to conduct talks with Lebanon’s government on a “national defense strategy” in the wake of the war with Israel, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The announcement came after a Reuters report that cited Lebanese government ministers demanding a timetable for the disarmament of Hezbollah, as required by the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War and the ceasefire deal Beirut reached with Jerusalem in November 2024.
State Minister for Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence Kamal Shehadi, who is affiliated with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces Party, told Reuters earlier this week that the full disarmament of the terrorist army should take no more than six months.
Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a senior member of Hezbollah’s “political wing,” told the country’s Al Jadeed outlet on Wednesday that the group would not agree to give up its arms as part of the national defense strategy.
“There will be no disarmament, no handover of weapons and no compromise,” he said, denying reports to the contrary.
Experts have warned that Hezbollah, instead of disbanding its “military” wing as required by Resolution 1701, will leverage its remaining power to integrate its terrorists into the Lebanese state apparatus.
U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus told local media following a three-day visit to Beirut on Sunday that Hezbollah and all Lebanese militias should be disarmed “as soon as possible.
“We know that the sooner that the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] is able to meet these goals and disarm all militias in the state, the sooner the Lebanese people can be free,” she told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI).
The situation in Lebanon remains volatile following the end of the truce with Beirut on Feb. 18. The ceasefire, which took effect on Nov. 27, ended more than a year of war, after Hezbollah began attacks on Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel.
Although Jerusalem has withdrawn most of its ground forces since the war ended, it still controls five strategic positions in Southern Lebanon. Israeli officials have stated that the IDF will retain control of these areas until the Lebanese army demonstrates it can maintain security there.
