Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji on Wednesday described the government’s decision on arms monopolization as “historic,” saying that Lebanon has asked U.S. envoy Tom Barrack for “an Israeli step in return.”
“We’ve gone through decades of occupation and the hegemony of movements that have nothing to do with Lebanon,” Rajji added in remarks to Al-Arabiya TV, while stressing that “there will be no turning back on the decision to monopolize arms.”

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called on Hezbollah to “cooperate with the Lebanese Army,” which is preparing a plan for monopolizing arms in the hands of the state, unnamed sources told Al-Arabiya television.
Berri also stressed to Hezbollah that “there is no benefit from using street action to object against the disarmament decision or force its drop,” the sources said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil warned against using force to disarm Hezbollah, saying that it is not acceptable to threaten Hezbollah while Israel has not stopped its aggressions and is still occupying five hills in south Lebanon.
Bassil said in an interview Tuesday with Saudi state-owned news channel al-Arabiya that using force against Hezbollah would lead to domestic conflicts after the government tasked the Lebanese army to submit a plan by the end of August to disarm the group.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has criticized remarks by Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem as he urged the group to hand over its arms and declare its "ultimate loyalty to Lebanon".
"There can be no civil war," al-Rahi told Saudi state-owned news channel al-Arabiya Tuesday, after Qassem said last week that Hezbollah disarmament could lead to "civil war" and vowed to fight to keep the group's arsenal.

A member of Irish rap band Kneecap was due to appear in court on Wednesday charged with a terror offence for allegedly supporting Hezbollah.
Liam O'Hanna, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged in May after being accused of displaying a Hezbollah flag during a London concert in November.

U.S. envoys Tom Barrack and Morgan Ortagus left Beirut for Tel Aviv to discuss what Israel is required to do after the Lebanese government’s unprecedented decisions on arms monopolization, diplomatic sources said.
In his meeting with Barrack, President Joseph Aoun “insisted on the need to reassure the Shiite community, especially after the political crisis caused by the government’s latest decisions” on Hezbollah’s disarmament, the sources told Al-Jadeed television.

Syrian security forces in the central Homs province have seized a truck loaded with Grad-type rockets that was headed for Lebanon, Syrian state media reported on Tuesday.
Syria’s al-Ekhbaria news channel said the truck was intercepted in a well-planned ambush near the Lebanese border.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar has told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has failed in its mission to prevent Hezbollah's military buildup south of the Litani River, Israel Hayom newspaper said Tuesday.
In his letter to Rubio, Sa'ar called for the immediate termination of UNIFIL's operations in south Lebanon.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Tuesday during a visit to Jordan that Israel will get more and more isolated in the world amid the measures it is carrying out in the West Bank and Gaza.
Jordan's Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan said during the meeting that his country supports Lebanon and backs its sovereignty, security and stability, lauding a decision by the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah and extend the state's authority over the entire Lebanese territory.

One of Lebanon's largest factories making the highly addictive amphetamine Captagon has been discovered and destroyed as part of rare security cooperation between intelligence agencies in Iraq and Lebanon, Iraq's Interior Ministry said.
The announcement late Monday came a month after the Lebanese Army issued a statement about the discovery of a drug factory in Yammoune village in the eastern Bekaa Valley with large amounts of drugs inside.
