Hezbollah slammed the "mechanism" committee and head of Lebanon's delegation Ambassador Simon Karam, deeming his recent statements a violation of the committee's duties and a precursor to Israel intervening in Lebanon beyond the November 2024 ceasefire agreement.
Hezbollah accused Karam of violating the "technical role" of the committee and of making political statements that "undermine Lebanon's sovereignty and the rights of the Lebanese people and resistors."
The accusations are the latest in a campaign the Iran-backed party has been waging since the beginning the year over efforts to hand over its weapons north of the Litani River. The disarmament is part of a government decision to impose state monopoly over weapons across the country.
The first phase of the plan covered regions south of the Litani and focus has now shifted to areas north of it.
Hezbollah has refused to lay down its weapons in defiance of the state, notably President Joseph Aoun whose recent statements confirming that authorities are forging ahead with the plan have put him at odds with the party and made him a target of its attacks.
A Hezbollah statement on Sunday said the "mechanism" has a purely technical role that is limited to south of the Litani.
"Any improvised proposals only allow the Israeli enemy to meddle in issues not covered in the ceasefire," it added.
The party said appointing a diplomat - Karam - as head of the Lebanese delegation in the mechanism was "a second sin no less significant than the sin of" imposing state monopoly over arms, "especially amid the Zionist occupation of Lebanese territories and continued daily violations against the people and nation."
Hezbollah expressed its "categorical rejection" of attempts to expand the authority of the committee under various diplomatic or political excuses.
The statement also slammed remarks by Karam who cast doubt over Hezbollah's cooperation with the army's disarmament efforts south of the Litani.
Karam's remarks contradict Aoun and other official statements that asserted that the party had indeed cooperated with the military in line with the ceasefire, added Hezbollah.
Ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat, however, that the party was not cooperative with the army, but chose to simply not stand in its way as it implemented the disarmament plan.
The army itself was discovering Hezbollah tunnels and weapons caches, while the party never offered to give it the locations of these sites, they stressed.
Residents of the South were actually notably cooperative with the army, who often pointed them in the direction of caches, they revealed.
The sources rejected Hezbollah's accusations against Karam, dismissing them as an attempt to rally support among its own supporters.
Moreover, they stressed that the authorities will continue with the disarmament plan north of the Litani, noting however the delicate task demands a balanced political and security approach, which officials, led by the president, are working on.
