Cabinet meets again on Hezbollah disarmament

Lebanon's cabinet convened again Thursday to discuss the thorny task of disarming Hezbollah, a day after the Iran-backed group rejected the government's decision to take away its weapons.

All the ministers of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement were attending the session, except for Finance Minister Yassine Jaber, who is still abroad.

"The outcome of contacts after the cabinet session will lead to either ending the debate over arms or resigning from the government," sources close to Hezbollah told Al-Arabiya television.

Other media reports said the cabinet will approve the U.S. paper presented by U.S. envoy Tom Barrack even if the ministers of Hezbollah and Amal walk out of the session.

Speaking in the session, Labor Minister Mohammad Haidar of Hezbollah said: “I’m the son of these people. How can I face the mother of a martyr, a mother who is still living in a tent, or a young man who is living an existential concern every day? How can I tell him that he has to obey and give up the only guarantee that protects him?”

“We cannot discuss the resistance’s army before the enemy withdraws, our captives return, the attacks stop and the reconstruction begins. I apologize for not being able to bear the responsibility for aggrieving my people and I do not accept that the state abandon its people,” Haidar added.

The ministers of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement had walked out of Tuesday's meeting on disarmament in protest at the decision to task the army with presenting a Hezbollah disarmament plan before the end of the month.

Hezbollah described the walkout as a rejection of the government's "decision to subject Lebanon to American tutelage and Israeli occupation."

Referring to Thursday's cabinet session, State Minister for Administrative Development Fadi Makki, a Shiite who is close to PN Nawaf Salam, said that he "will not bear the approval of crucial decisions of this magnitude without the presence of the Shiite ministers."

"Without completing the political process and if the Amal and Hezbollah ministers do not attend today, the cabinet session will not serve the public interest," he cautioned.

Citing "political sources" with knowledge of the matter, pro-Hezbollah newspaper al-Akhbar said the group and its Amal allies could choose to withdraw their four ministers from the government or trigger a no-confidence vote in parliament by the Shiite bloc, which comprises 27 of Lebanon's 128 lawmakers.

With Washington pressing Lebanon to take action on the matter, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has made several visits to Beirut in recent weeks, presenting officials with a proposal that includes a timetable for Hezbollah's disarmament.

Amid the U.S. pressure and fears Israel could expand its strikes in Lebanon, Salam said Tuesday that the government had tasked the army with developing a plan to restrict weapons to government forces by the end of 2025.

The decision is unprecedented since the end of Lebanon's civil war more than three decades ago, when the country's armed factions -- with the exception of Hezbollah -- agreed to surrender their weapons.

The government said the new disarmament push was part of implementing a November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

That conflict culminated last year in two months of full-blown war that left the group badly weakened, both politically and militarily.

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

It added that the move "undermines Lebanon's sovereignty and gives Israel a free hand to tamper with its security, geography, politics and future existence."

The Amal Movement, Hezbollah's main ally headed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, also criticized the move and called Thursday's cabinet meeting "an opportunity for correction."

Iran, Hezbollah's military and financial backer, said on Wednesday that any decision on disarmament "will ultimately rest with Hezbollah itself."

"We support it from afar, but we do not intervene in its decisions," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi added, saying the group had "rebuilt itself" after the war with Israel.

Israel -- which routinely carries out air strikes in Lebanon despite the ceasefire, saying it is targeting Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure -- has already signaled it would not hesitate to launch destructive military operations if Beirut failed to disarm the group.

Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed two people on Wednesday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.