BEIRUT: Hezbollah said on Wednesday the Lebanese government was committing a “grave sin” by tasking the army with establishing a state monopoly on arms, sharpening a national divide over calls for the Shiite Muslim group to disarm.
The cabinet on Tuesday authorized the Lebanese army to draw up a plan to confine arms across the country to six official security forces by year’s end — a major challenge to the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The move came after the US and anti-Hezbollah parties in Lebanon ramped up pressure on the cabinet to publicly commit to disarming the party, amid fears that Israel could intensify strikes on Lebanon if they fail to do so.
In a written statement on Wednesday, Hezbollah said the move was a result of US “diktats” and that it would “deal with it as if it does not exist.”
“The government of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam committed a grave sin by taking a decision to strip Lebanon of its weapons to resist the Israeli enemy... This decision fully serves Israel’s interest,” the group said.
