Lebanese president speaks of plans to disarm Hezbollah this year; terror group says no
Joseph Aoun says all weapons will come under state control through dialogue; official in terror group pushes back, says ‘any hand that reaches out to take them will be cut off’
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Tuesday that all weapons in Lebanon must come under exclusive state control in 2025, outlining that Hezbollah’s disarmament will come through direct coordination with the terror group.
However, after the president’s statements, a senior official in Hezbollah pushed back on talk of disarmament, saying that the group plans to “stick to its weapons and its resistance.”
Aoun told the Qatari-backed The New Arab outlet that “the decision has been made to place all weapons under the state.” He clarified that “the execution will happen through dialogue, which I believe must be bilateral between the presidency and Hezbollah.”
Aoun said he is committed to avoiding internal conflict while pursuing the agenda, which could greatly weaken Hezbollah’s longstanding military and political power in the country, saying he recently told US deputy Mideast envoy Morgan Ortagus, “We want to remove Hezbollah’s weapons, but we will not ignite a civil war in Lebanon.”
The president claimed growing success in asserting the authority of the Lebanese military over the Iran-backed Shiite militia, saying: “We have reached the point where the [Lebanese] army is carrying out its missions — south of the Litani, north of the Litani, and even in the Bekaa — without any obstruction from Hezbollah.”
Aoun also suggested that Hezbollah members could be integrated into the Lebanese army.
At the same time, he pushed back against US pressure on Lebanon to suppress Hezbollah, urging Washington to shift its focus to Israel.
“I told Ortagus that Israel’s presence in the five disputed points gives Hezbollah a pretext to keep its weapons,” Aoun said, referring to five strategic points where IDF troops have remained in Lebanon since a November ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Israel says those positions are crucial for protecting Israel’s northern residents from the terror group.
Auon also rejected the possibility of normalization with Israel in the near future, saying, “The Americans know there can be no negotiations with Israel at this stage.”
According to The New Arab, Auon said French President Emmanuel Macron has offered to assist Lebanon and Syria in efforts to demarcate their land border, including the Shebaa Farms area — a small, Israel-controlled region on the Lebanese border with the Golan Heights that has in the past been a major flashpoint of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
While the disputed area, a key strategic vantage point for military forces, has been under Israeli control since the IDF captured it from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, Aoun claimed that Macron offered to assist negotiations “by providing French archival records that affirm Shebaa Farms’ Lebanese identity.”
After Aoun’s interview, senior Hezbollah political leader and parliament member Mahmoud Qamati pushed back against the notion of the terror group laying down its arms, saying that Hezbollah will “stick to its weapons and its resistance” and that “any hand that reaches out to take them will be cut off.”
Recently, some officials in the terror group have signaled a willingness to discuss disarmament, but only on the condition that Israel fully withdraw from southern Lebanon and cease all strikes in the country.
“Hezbollah is ready to discuss the matter of its arms if Israel withdraws from the five points, and halts its aggression against the Lebanese,” a senior official told Reuters earlier this month.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said in a speech last week that the terror group has “expressed our readiness for dialogue to find a defense strategy for Lebanon.”
“We are in constant contact with President Aoun. When he calls for dialogue and sets national foundations for it, we are ready,” he added.
Hezbollah has been left badly weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel, beginning in October 2023 with the group’s campaign of deadly rocket fire in support of Hamas, the day after the allied Palestinian terror group led a massive invasion of southern Israel.
Israel hit back at Hezbollah with airstrikes, and in September 2024, it launched a major campaign that included a ground incursion into southern Lebanon to put an end to the rockets and drones, and allow evacuated residents of northern border towns to return to their homes. During the war, most of the terror group’s top leadership was killed.
Under a November 27 truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters to the north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south, while the Lebanese army was to deploy in the area.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP last week that the group had ceded to the Lebanese army around 190 of its 265 military positions identified south of the Litani.
According to analysts, Hezbollah has moved toward being open to disarmament, something once unthinkable.
“It’s conceivable to think that Hezbollah could move toward disarmament and potentially even participate in that process willingly,” David Wood from the International Crisis Group told AFP, adding that the war with Israel “clearly changed the situation on the ground in Lebanon.”
Hezbollah was the only group that refused to disarm after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war. Bolstered by an arsenal once considered more powerful than that of the Lebanese army, it long presented itself as the country’s best line of defense against Israel, but both its stockpiles and its senior leadership were sapped by the conflict, with longtime terror leader Hassan Nasrallah among the commanders killed.
