Lebanon's cabinet on Friday welcomed a plan by the army that would disarm Hezbollah and said the military would begin executing it, without setting a timeframe for implementation and cautioning that the army had limited capabilities.
The cabinet met for three hours, which included the plan's presentation by army commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal.
Four Shiite ministers representing Hezbollah and Amal movement in the government, in addition to a fifth independent Shiite minister, left the session in protest once Haykal entered the room.
The Hezbollah and Amal ministers then left the presidential palace in Baabda.
The Shiite ministers had also walked out in protest from the meeting last month in which the cabinet commissioned the army with drawing up a disarmament plan under which only state institutions in the country will have weapons by the end of the year.
Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos told reporters after the session that the government welcomed the plan but stopped short of saying the cabinet had formally passed it.
He said the army would begin implementing the plan according to its logistical, material and personnel capabilities, which might require "additional time (and) additional effort.”
Morcos said the plan's details would remain secret.
He also said that Israel had not held up its end of the agreement laid out in a US-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November. Since then, Israeli forces have continued to occupy five strategic hills inside Lebanese territory and to carry out near-daily airstrikes.
“Israel, like Lebanon, has clear obligations” under the agreement, Morcos said. “However, its continued violations constitute evidence of its reneging on these obligations and seriously threaten regional security and stability. ”
Hezbollah-aligned Labor Minister Mohammad Haidar told local media before the cabinet's session had concluded that any decision taken in the absence of Shiite ministers would be null and void as it would be considered in contravention of Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system.
Hezbollah has said it would be a serious misstep to even discuss disarmament while Israel continues its air strikes on Lebanon and occupies swathes of territory in the south.
