Hezbollah says ready to discuss disarming if Israel withdraws from south Lebanon
The group said it was open to talks with Lebanon’s president if Israel retreated from from five hilltops and halted its strikes
As calls for Lebanon’s Hezbollah to disarm gain momentum, a senior Hezbollah official has said the group was ready to hold talks with the Lebanese president about its weapons if Israel withdraws from south Lebanon and stops its strikes.
US-backed President Joseph Aoun, who vowed when he took office in January to establish a state monopoly on the control of arms, intends to open talks with Hezbollah over its arsenal soon, three Lebanese political sources said.
Discussion of disarmament has intensified since the power balance was upended by last year’s war with Israel and the ousting of Hezbollah’s Syrian ally, ex-president Bashar al-Assad.
Hezbollah emerged severely weakened from the 2024 conflict with Israel when its top leaders and thousands of its fighters were killed and much of its rocket arsenal destroyed.
The senior Hezbollah official said the group was ready to discuss its arms in the context of a national defence strategy but this hinged on Israel pulling out its troops from five hilltops in south Lebanon.
“Hezbollah is ready to discuss the matter of its arms if Israel withdraws from the five points, and halts its aggression against Lebanese,” the senior official said.