https://arab.news/zmmux
A year after Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, pressure is mounting on the Lebanese government to take extreme measures to disarm the militant group and cut off its links with its main benefactor, Iran. The US has informed President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam that, unless concrete steps are taken to end all sources of finance to the group and to dismantle its weapons, Washington cannot guarantee that Israel will not intervene to end Hezbollah’s threat.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that Tel Aviv is ready to step in and destroy Hezbollah. In recent weeks, he and his defense minister, Israel Katz, have accused Hezbollah of rebuilding its arsenal, recruiting thousands and smuggling weapons from Iran through Syria. Israel has stepped up its daily attacks on what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. It claims that it has killed hundreds of the group’s militants since the ceasefire came into effect last November.
Meanwhile, the party’s secretary-general, Naim Qassem, has sent stern messages to the Lebanese government rejecting any attempt to disarm the group or engage in direct talks with Israel. While the government and the army have a mandate to end Hezbollah’s presence in southern Lebanon and restrict all arms to the state, meaning disarming Hezbollah, little has been done in that regard. A confrontation between the army and Hezbollah could easily spark a civil war in Lebanon. While Aoun is determined to fulfill a promise to disarm nonstate actors and limit weapons to state control, in reality, the government and the national army have no tools to implement that promise.
