A senior Hezbollah official warned that the efforts by the Lebanese state to disarm the terror group, as per the ceasefire agreement with Israel, could lead the country to civil war.
Speaking with the Russian state media outlet RT, senior political official Mahmoud Qamati said that attempts to continue the disarmament effort north of the Litani River would be “the greatest crime the state has committed.”
The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) declared last week that it had completed the first stage of its plan to monopolize weapons in the hands of the state by establishing full control over the area south of the Litani, which borders Israel.
This was the first step in a multi-stage plan by the government to disarm the terror group, which it announced last August under heavy pressure from the Trump administration.
Israel has lauded these efforts while repeatedly warning that they were not sufficient to stop the group’s rebuilding operations, even when taken together with simultaneous, near-daily IDF airstrikes which the Lebanese government has criticized.
Hezbollah has claimed it would comply with the withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the dismantling of its infrastructure there but stressed it would not disarm any further. Qamati said the aspiration for a state monopoly over weapons north of the Litani would be “the greatest crime the state has committed.”
“The path being taken by the Lebanese government and state institutions will lead Lebanon to instability, chaos, and perhaps even a civil war,” he warned, while claiming that Hezbollah troops would not be “drawn” into clashes with the LAF.
He also reiterated the group’s stance that there would be no discussions about the situation north of the Litani “before Israel withdraws from all Lebanese territory, liberates the south and the prisoners, and stops its violations against Lebanon.”
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