Lebanese PM says he won’t allow Hezbollah to drag country into a new conflict

Lebanon’s prime minister says he will not allow his country to be dragged into a new conflict, after Hezbollah warned any attack on its Iranian backer would be an attack on the group.

“We will never allow anyone to drag the country into another adventure,” Nawaf Salam says during the World Governments Summit in Dubai, in response to a question about comments made by Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem last week.

Qassem had responded to American threats of military action against Iran, saying “We will choose at that time how to act… but we are not neutral.”

Salam says Hezbollah’s decision to enter the Gaza war in support of its ally Hamas had “very big” consequences for Lebanon and that “no one is willing to expose the country to adventures of this kind.”

More than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which largely ended with a November 2024 ceasefire, badly weakened the group.

The government has begun implementing a plan to disarm it starting in the south, one of its main traditional strongholds.

In January, Lebanon’s army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

Salam says that the state had “worked to regain control over decisions on war and peace.”

“The Lebanese army has full operational control over the south,” he adds

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army’s progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.