Lebanese cabinet holds more talks on disarming Hezbollah, under US pressure

Lebanon’s cabinet has again met to discuss the disarmament of Hezbollah despite the latter’s earlier rejection of the demands, which have largely been driven by the United States.

Lebanon’s information minister said the cabinet, on Thursday, approved only the objectives of a US proposal for disarming Hezbollah by the end of the year, along with ending Israel’s military operations in the country, but they did not discuss the full details of it.

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The talks came two days after ministers announced they were planning to restrict arms to six official forces by the end of the year. Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc accused the government of “slipping into accepting American demands” that would serve Israel’s interests.

Hezbollah ministers and Shia Muslim allies in the Lebanese cabinet withdrew from the cabinet meeting in protest during discussions about the proposal to disarm Hezbollah, three Lebanese political sources told Reuters.

Beirut’s clampdown on Hezbollah comes after prodding from US envoy Tom Barrack, who presented the government with detailed proposals featuring a timetable for disarming the group, even as Israel continued to violate a November truce it signed with Lebanon to end more than a year of hostilities that culminated last year in two months of full-blown war.

The phased proposals aim to “extend and stabilise” the ceasefire, requiring the government to remove Hezbollah’s arsenal under “a detailed [Lebanese army] deployment plan”, and calling on Israel to cease attacks and withdraw from the five positions it continued to hold in south Lebanon after the ceasefire deal was struck, according to a copy of a Lebanese cabinet agenda seen by the news agency Reuters.