LF says Hezbollah should apologize for 35 years of 'disasters'

The Lebanese Forces lauded Wednesday in a statement the government's decision a day earlier to disarm Hezbollah, describing the move as "historical".

The decision was long overdue, the statement said, adding that it should have been taken 35 years ago.

The government asked the national army on Tuesday to prepare a plan in which only state institutions will have weapons in the small nation by the end of the year.

The announcement by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam after a nearly six-hour Cabinet meeting, came shortly after Hezbollah's leader said his group would not disarm and warned that the Iran-backed faction would resume missile attacks on Israel if military operations against them intensify.

The LF criticized an attack by Hezbollah on President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and said the group should rather apologize to the Lebanese people for the wrongdoings committed against them and against Lebanon over the past 35 years, including a war with Israel in 2006, the May 7 clashes, the group's intervention in the Syrian civil war, and the latest war with Israel in support of Gaza.

"After all the death, destruction, devastation, disasters, and collapse that the country has suffered due to the axis of resistance ... and after the vast majority of the Lebanese became determined to opt for a real state, the axis was expected to undertake a comprehensive review of all the harm it caused to the nation and the people, particularly its people. However, instead of changing its destructive behavior and suicidal path, it unleashed its anger against the President and the Prime Minister."

Hezbollah said Wednesday that it would treat the decision "as if it did not exist", accusing Salam's government of committing "a grave sin".