US envoy Thomas Barrack said on Monday that he was "unbelievably satisfied" with the Lebanese government's reply to an American proposal on how to disarm Hezbollah.
"What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time. I'm unbelievably satisfied with the response," Barrack told reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at Baabda Palace, without giving details of the response.
Aoun's team gave Barrack a seven-page reply to his June 19 proposal.
Hezbollah emerged badly damaged from a war with Israel last year that eliminated much of the group's leadership, killed thousands of its fighters and left tens of thousands of its supporters displaced from their destroyed homes.
The group has been under pressure in recent months both within Lebanon and from Washington to completely relinquish its weapons.
Barrack's proposal would see Hezbollah fully disarmed within four months in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli troops occupying several posts in south Lebanon and a halt to Israeli airstrikes.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem reiterated Sunday the group’s refusal to lay down its weapons before Israel withdraws from all of southern Lebanon and stops its airstrikes.
Hezbollah has already relinquished a number of weapons depots in southern Lebanon to the Lebanese army in line with a US-brokered truce that ended last year's war.
The truce also stipulates that Israeli troops withdraw. Hezbollah has pointed to the troops' continued occupation of at least five posts in southern Lebanon as a main violation.
“How can you expect us not to stand firm while the Israeli enemy continues its aggression, continues to occupy the five points, and continues to enter our territories and kill?” Qassem said in a video address on Sunday. “We will not be part of legitimizing the occupation in Lebanon and the region. We will not accept normalization (with Israel).”
