Hezbollah on Wednesday said that it would treat a Lebanese government decision to disarm the militant group “as if it did not exist,” accusing the Cabinet of committing a “grave sin.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Tuesday said that the government had tasked the army with developing a plan to restrict weapons to government forces by the end of this year.
The plan is to be presented to the government by the end of this month for discussion and approval, and another Cabinet meeting scheduled for yesterday was to continue the talks, including on a US-proposed timetable for disarmament.
Photo: Reuters
Hezbollah said that the government had “committed a grave sin by taking the decision to disarm Lebanon of its weapons to resist the Israeli enemy.”
The decision is unprecedented, as Lebanon’s civil war factions gave up their weapons three-and-a-half decades ago.
“This decision undermines Lebanon’s sovereignty and gives Israel a free hand to tamper with its security, geography, politics and future existence... Therefore, we will treat this decision as if it does not exist,” the group said in a statement.
The government said its decision came as part of implementing a ceasefire implemented in November last year that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which culminated in two months of full-blown war.
Hezbollah said it viewed the government’s move as “the result of dictates from US envoy” Tom Barrack.
It “fully serves Israel’s interests and leaves Lebanon exposed to the Israeli enemy without any deterrence,” the group said.
Hezbollah was the only faction that kept its weapons after Lebanon’s civil war from 1975 to 1990.
It emerged weakened politically and militarily from its latest conflict with Israel, its arsenal pummeled and its senior leadership crippled.
Israel has kept up its strikes on Hezbollah and other targets despite the truce and has threatened to keep doing so until the group has been disarmed.
An Israeli strike on the town of Tulin on Wednesday killed one person and wounded another, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
Israel also launched a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon, wounding at least two people, the ministry said.
The Israeli military said that it struck “weapons storage facilities, a missile launcher and Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure which stored engineering tools that allowed for the re-establishment of terrorist infrastructure in the area.”
Hezbollah said that Israel must halt the attacks before any domestic debate about its weapons and a new defense strategy could begin.
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