BEIRUT: Shiite ministers walked out of a Lebanese cabinet meeting Friday called to discuss efforts to disarm Hezbollah, state media reported, with the group adamant it would hold onto its weapons.
The walkout by five ministers, including those from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, happened as Lebanon’s army chief entered the meeting to present a plan for disarming the group, local media reported.
The official National News Agency (NNA)reported that they had left the meeting, but did not say why.
The Lebanese government had ordered the military to draw up plans to disarm the once-dominant militant group by the end of the year, having come under pressure from the United States and Israeli strikes.
Hezbollah and Amal ministers have three times now walked out of cabinet talks over disarmament. Multi-confessional Lebanon has a sect-based power-sharing system in which legitimacy unofficially derives from consensus.
