Hizbollah 'will not let anyone disarm' it, says chief

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hizbollah "will not let anyone disarm" it, the Lebanese group's leader Naim Qassem said Friday, as Washington presses Beirut to compel the Iran-backed movement to hand over its weapons.

 

Hezbollah, long a dominant force in Lebanese politics, was left weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel sparked by the Gaza war, including an Israeli ground incursion and two months of heavy bombardment that decimated the group's leadership.

 

The fighting was largely brought to an end by a November ceasefire, but not before the group's longtime leader and Qassem's predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike.

 

"We will not let anyone disarm Hezbollah or disarm the resistance" against Israel, Qassem said in remarks on a Hezbollah-affiliated TV channel. 

 

"We must cut this idea of disarmament from the dictionary."

 

His comments came hours after another Hizbollah official said the group refused to discuss handing over its weapons unless Israel withdrew completely from south Lebanon and halted its "aggression".

 

"It is not a question of disarming," Wafic Safa said in an interview with Hizbollah’s Al-Nur radio station.

 

"What the president (Joseph Aoun) said in his inauguration speech is a defensive strategy." 

 

Safa, believed by experts to belong to the movement's most radical faction, said Hezbollah had conveyed its position to Aoun, who on Tuesday said he sought "to make 2025 the year of restricting arms to the state".

 

In his interview, Safa asked: "Wouldn't it be logical for Israel to first withdraw, then release the prisoners, then cease its aggression... and then we discuss a defensive strategy?

 

"The defensive strategy is about thinking about how to protect Lebanon, not preparing for the party to hand over its weapons."

 

Analysts have said that the once unthinkable idea of Hezbollah disarming may no longer be so, and may even be inevitable.

 

Problem is Israel' 

 

Under the November ceasefire, Israel was meant to withdraw all of its forces from south Lebanon.

 

But despite the deal, its troops have remained at five south Lebanon positions that they deem "strategic".

 

Israel has also continued to carry out near-daily strikes against Lebanon -- including on Friday -- saying it is targeting members of Hezbollah.

 

Under the truce, Hizbollah was to pull its fighters back north of Lebanon's Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

 

Lebanon's army has been deploying in the south as Israeli forces pulled back.

 

Hezbollah says the ceasefire does not apply to the rest of Lebanon, despite being based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the disarmament of non-state groups.

 

Hizbollah was the only group to keep its weapons after Lebanon's 15-year civil war ended in 1990, saying that they were for "resistance" against Israel, which continued to occupy the south until 2000.

 

US special envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus, who visited Beirut this month, said Washington continued to press Beirut "to fully fulfil the cessation of hostilities, and that includes disarming Hizbollah and all militias". 

 

Safa said on Friday that both Hezbollah and the Lebanese army were respecting the terms of the truce.

 

"The problem is Israel, which has not done so," he said.

 

On Saturday, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the group had ceded to the Lebanese army around 190 of its 265 military positions identified south of the Litani.