Hezbollah has decided to ignore the Lebanese government’s plans to disarm it, the Palestinian Quds News Network reported on Wednesday, quoting a spokesperson for the Shi’ite terrorist group.
“We will treat the government’s decision to disarm us as nonexistent,” QNN quoted the spokesperson as saying.
The statement was in response to reports on Aug. 5 that Lebanon’s cabinet had tasked the national army with drawing up a plan to establish a state monopoly on arms by the end of the year.
Hezbollah has rejected calls to disarm since last year’s war with Israel, which left it severely weakened.
The Iran-backed group is under pressure from its rivals in Lebanon and from Washington, who want Beirut ministers to publicly commit to disarming Hezbollah and worry that Israel could intensify strikes on Lebanon if they fail to do so, the Reuters news agency reported.
Hezbollah currently has about 40,000 terrorists and up to 40,000 rockets, according to estimates by Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS.)
It had lost about 80% of its ballistic arsenal in the war with Israel, which it initiated out of solidarity with Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023, and which ended in November the following year with a ceasefire.
Israel also killed 3,500 to 4,000 Hezbollah terrorists in the war, including its former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his entire top command, as well as many mid-level officers, INSS said.
Hezbollah is not believed to possess an armored corps or air force, but does have highly trained terrorists with combat experience.
Lebanon’s army has superior firepower, including tanks and gunship helicopters, as well as about 60,000 regular army soldiers and another 35,000 reserve troops, according to the Global Firepower database.
Yet it has in the past avoided engaging Hezbollah even when the terrorist group undermined the army’s mandate.
In the Nov. 26 ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, the group agreed to evacuate its troops south of the Litani River, a move that would remove Hezbollah from the border with Israel. Hezbollah had declined these terms before accepting them.
Israel has killed about 200 Hezbollah terrorists south of the Litani River since the ceasefire went into effect, in what it said were enforcement actions. Hezbollah has not resumed its launching of rockets into Israel, which it initiated in 2023.
In addition to its own losses to Israel, Hezbollah had its longtime allies and financiers, Syria and Iran, also severely weakened by Israel.
The regime of former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad collapsed in December, prompting Israel to target and destroy much of the heavy weaponry of his army. Assad was replaced by a former Al-Qaeda terrorist, Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Sunni fighters and allies fought for years with Hezbollah during the Syrian Civil War.
Israel gained air superiority over Iran and ravaged its ballistic arsenal, nuclear sites and military infrastructure during the 12-day war that ended in June.
The Lebanese cabinet meeting at Beirut’s presidential palace on Tuesday was the first time that forum had directly addressed Hezbollah’s weapons, according to the report.
Ministers met for nearly six hours, leading to a concluding statement by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who said the cabinet had authorized the Lebanese Army to develop a plan to ensure that all arms across the country would be confined to six specific state security forces by the end of the year.
Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, on Tuesday publicly resisted calls to disarm. “I hope you (Lebanese officials) don’t waste time on the storms stirred up by external dictates,” he said in a televised speech.
“The strategy is not a timetable for disarmament,” Qassem said. “The issue has become simply: give us weapons, but no national security. How is that possible? We do not accept it, because we consider ourselves a fundamental component of Lebanon.”
The army would have until the end of the month to submit its plan, said Lebanon’s Information Minister Paul Morcos, adding that the cabinet had discussed U.S. proposals to disarm Hezbollah but had not reached an agreement, Reuters reported.
In June, U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack proposed a road map to Lebanese officials to fully disarm Hezbollah, in exchange for Israel halting its strikes on Lebanon and withdrawing its troops from five points they still occupy in southern Lebanon.
Whereas politicians close to Hezbollah are trying to negotiate the disarmament plan away, other Lebanese ministers plan to propose a formulation that commits Lebanon to a deadline to disarm Hezbollah, Kamal Shehadi, a minister affiliated with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces Party, told Reuters.
“There’s frankly no need to kick the can down the road and postpone a decision. We have to put Lebanon’s interest first and make a decision,” Shehadi told the news agency.
