Hezbollah tells Lebanese leaders: Focus on forcing Israel to comply with ceasefire, not disarming us

The Hezbollah terror group publishes an open letter to Lebanon’s three top officials — the prime minister, the president and the parliament speaker — saying that Lebanon should concentrate on ensuring the ceasefire with Israel is implemented and forcing Israel to comply, rather than “being drawn into political negotiations with the Zionist enemy.”

In the letter, Hezbollah says that “the government’s hasty decision regarding the monopoly of arms” — meaning the decision to disarm the terror group — allowed Israel to exploit the situation and make the disarmament a condition for ending its “violations” of the ceasefire.

It adds that the issue of weapons “should be discussed within a national framework and not as a response to a foreign demand or Israeli blackmail.”

The terror group began near-daily missile and drone attacks on northern Israel on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the Gaza war.

Under the November 27 ceasefire deal, which followed over a year of hostilities, Hezbollah was required to vacate southern Lebanon and be replaced by the Lebanese military. Israel, which invaded southern Lebanon late September last year, was also required to withdraw, but regularly strikes what it says are Hezbollah targets breaching the ceasefire, and maintains a troop presence in five strategic locations.