The Lebanese presidency and premiership dismissed the latest Hezbollah threats related to its disarmament, saying they are forging ahead with the ceasefire and commitments they have made to the people.
Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem declared on Friday: “We will confront anyone working on disarming us the same way we confronted Israel.”
Sources from the premiership told Asharq Al-Awsat that the government is forging ahead in implementing its ministerial statement, which stipulated the need to limit the possession of arms in the country to the state.
President Joseph Aoun had made a similar pledge during his swearing in speech.
Commenting on Qassem’s statement, ministerial sources close to the presidency told Asharq Al-Awsat: “No one has threatened to remove the weapons by force.”
“Everything can be resolved through dialogue, which Qassem himself had expressed readiness to take part in,” they added.
They read Qassem’s escalatory tone as an attempt to reach out to Hezbollah’s support base during such a critical time for the Iran-backed party.
They noted that Qassem did not negatively address the dialogue that Aoun had called for. He also did not dismiss the army and its role. Rather, he rejected setting a timeframe for disarming Hezbollah.
“The president is the one who sets the mechanism for the dialogue and when it will start,” they stressed.
Moreover, the sources added that communication will continue “despite everything, given that Hezbollah – above anyone else – has an interest in maintaining calm” in Lebanon.
“Dialogue and diplomacy take time and Qassem has dismissed neither,” they went on to say.
The sources said that Qassem’s remarks may have been addressed to foreign actors, most notably amid the negotiations between the United States and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program.
Qassem is effectively telling Tehran that Hezbollah’s weapons are a card it can use in its negotiations with the Americans and that it rejects US pressure on it, explained the sources.
Wave of condemnation
Lebanese officials were quick to condemn Qassem’s remarks, saying the party has not changed its “arrogant” stances.
Even deputy US Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus dismissed Qassem’s statement, replying simply with “Yawn” in a post on her X account.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, in his Easter message, demanded: “Enough war. Enough weapons.”
Former President Michel Suleiman responded directly to Hezbollah, saying: “We reject threats of violence and of a return to civil war.”
“We reject claims that the army is weak and statements that the weapons will be retained in the South, Mountain, Bekaa, North, and Beirut,” he added. He noted that as long as weapons remain outside state control “state institutions will not rise, the economy will not be revived and Lebanon will not regain its friends in the international community.”
Addressing the Hezbollah leadership, MP Ashraf Rifi said on X: “What is left of the leadership has not derived lessons from the catastrophe that their party has caused. Here they are recklessly clinging on to their weapons for the sake of Tehran that is negotiating with the Americans with the lives of the Lebanese people.”
It seems that the leadership “has lost the least bit of wisdom and the ability to use sound judgement,” he remarked.
“The Lebanese people will not allow you to forcibly lead them to another suicidal adventure,” he said. “The weapons will be handed over sooner or later. There can be no turning back the hands of time.”
Head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea said of Qassem’s statements: “It appears that some are insisting on returning to the mentality of threats and severing hands” that come near the weapons.
“This is not the mentality of the state or democracy, rather one that undermines civil peace. Those adopting such mentalities must cease and see for themselves what their catastrophes have incurred on the nation,” he continued.
He called for allowing Lebanon’s new leaderships to help the country out of the calamities caused by Hezbollah.
‘Conspiracy’
Meanwhile, Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani dismissed as a “conspiracy” calls for stripping Hezbollah of its weapons.
In a post on X, he said that as the US continues to supply Israel with weapons and missiles, it prevents countries from arming and bolstering their militaries.
“Iran is aware of the dangerousness of this conspiracy and its threat to the security of the people of the region,” he added.
“We warn others of falling for the trap set up by the enemies. Maintaining the deterrence power is the first line of defense of sovereignty and independence,” he charged.
