Mikati says Hezbollah arms need national accord after controversial drill

The Lebanese government “rejects any act that infringes on the state’s authority and sovereignty, but the issue of Hezbollah’s arms requires comprehensive national consensus,” caretaker PM Najib Mikati said on Monday, after a Hezbollah military drill in the South drew condemnation from the party’s domestic rivals.

“This should be among the priorities of the coming stage,” Mikati told U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka, after she asked him about the drill during a meeting at the Grand Serail, the National News Agency said.

“At the current time, the government stresses the need to preserve security across Lebanon and not to carry out any act that might undermine it,” Mikati added.

Hezbollah put on a show of force on Sunday, extending a rare media invitation to one of its training sites in southern Lebanon, where its forces staged a simulated military exercise.

Masked fighters jumped through flaming hoops, fired from the backs of motorcycles, and blew up Israeli flags posted in the hills above and a wall simulating the one at the border between Lebanon and Israel.

Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said in a speech Sunday that the exercise was meant to "confirm our complete readiness to confront any aggression" by Israel.