President says Hezbollah disarmament will come through dialogue, not ‘force’

Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP):

Lebanon’s president said Monday that the disarmament of the militant group Hezbollah will come through negotiations as part of a national defence strategy and not through “force.”

The Lebanese government has made a decision that “weapons will only be in the hands of the state,” but there are “discussions around how to implement this decision,” President Joseph Aoun said in an interview with Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Those discussions are in the form of a “bilateral dialogue” between the presidency and Hezbollah, he said.

Lebanon has been under pressure by the United States to speed up the disarmament of Hezbollah but there are fears within Lebanon that forcing the issue could lead to civil conflict.

“Civil peace is a red line for me,” Aoun said.

Aoun said the Lebanese army – of which he was formerly commander – is “doing its duty” in confiscating weapons and dismantling unauthorised military facilities in southern Lebanon, as outlined in the ceasefire agreement that ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in late November, and sometimes in areas farther north.

Also on Monday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam led a high-level ministerial delegation to Syria for talks with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, marking the most significant diplomatic visit between the two countries since the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in December.

“My visit to Damascus today aims to open a new page in the history of relations between the two countries, based on mutual respect, restoring trust, good neighbourliness,” Salam said in a statement on X.

At the centre of discussions was implementing a March 28 agreement signed in Saudi Arabia by the Syrian and Lebanese defence ministers to demarcate land and sea borders and improve coordination on border security issues, Salam said in the statement.

The Lebanese-Syrian border witnessed deadly clashes earlier this year and years of unrest in the frontier regions, which have been plagued by weapons and illicit drug smuggling through illegal crossings.

During Monday’s meeting, Salam and Sharaa agreed to form a joint ministerial committee to oversee the implementation of the border agreement, close illegal crossings and suppress smuggling activity along the border.

The border area has long been a corridor for illicit trade, arms trafficking, and the movement of fighters – including Hezbollah militants who backed the Assad government during Syria’s 14-year civil war.

Hezbollah has been significantly weakened in its recent war with Israel and since Assad’s ousting, it lost several key smuggling routes it once relied on for weapons transfers.