Hezbollah's Qmati says govt. statement an 'opportunity to return to wisdom'

Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati told Reuters on Saturday that Hezbollah considers Friday's cabinet session on the Lebanese Army's plan to establish a state monopoly on arms "an opportunity to return to wisdom and reason, preventing the country from slipping into the unknown."

Information Minister Paul Morcos said after Friday's meeting that the army “will start implementing the plan, but according to the available resources — there are limited material and human logistical resources” and that the military “has the right of operational discretion.”

He did not specify a new timeline for implementation.

Morcos also said that Israel had not held up its end of the agreement laid out in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November. Since then, Israeli forces have continued to occupy five strategic hills inside Lebanese territory and to carry out near-daily airstrikes.

“Israel, like Lebanon, has clear obligations” under the agreement, Morcos said. “However, its continued violations constitute evidence of its reneging on these obligations and seriously threaten regional security and stability," he added.