Aoun calls on Hezbollah to 'bet on state', vows no leniency on arms
President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that Lebanon is determined to disarm Hezbollah, a step it has come under heavy U.S. pressure to take, with the Iran-backed group insisting that doing so would serve Israeli goals.
Hezbollah and Israel recently fought an all-out war that left the militant group badly weakened, though it retains part of its arsenal.
Israel has kept up its air strikes in Lebanon despite a November ceasefire, and has threatened to continue until the group has been disarmed.
In a key speech marking Army Day on Thursday, Aoun said Lebanon was demanding "the extension of the Lebanese state's authority over all its territory, the removal of weapons from all armed groups including Hezbollah and their handover to the Lebanese Army."
He added it was every politician's duty "to seize this historic opportunity and push without hesitation towards affirming the army and security forces' monopoly on weapons over all Lebanese territory... in order to regain the world's confidence."
Under the November ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.
Israel, meanwhile, was meant to pull all of its troops out of Lebanon, but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.
The truce was based on a previous U.N. Security Council resolution that said only the Lebanese military and U.N. peacekeepers should possess weapons in the country's south, and that all non-state groups should be disarmed.
However, that resolution went unfulfilled for years, with Hezbollah's arsenal before the latest war seen as far superior to the army's, and the group wielding extensive political influence.
Aoun himself took office in January after a two-year vacancy in the president's office -- his ascension made possible in part by the shifting balance of power in the wake of the conflict.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem had said that "anyone calling today for the surrender of weapons, whether internally or externally, on the Arab or the international stage, is serving the Israeli project."
He accused U.S. envoy Tom Barrack, who has visited Lebanon several times in recent months for talks with senior officials, of using "intimidation and threats" with the aim of "aiding Israel."
- Collapse or stability -
Israel has carried out near daily raids in Lebanon in recent months, mainly saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and operatives, though the group has refrained from striking back.
In his speech, Aoun said Lebanon was at "a crucial stage that does not tolerate any sort of provocation from any side."
"For the thousandth time, I assure you that my concern in having a (state) weapons monopoly comes from my concern to defend Lebanon's sovereignty and borders, to liberate the occupied Lebanese territories and build a state that welcomes all its citizens," he said, addressing Hezbollah's supporters as an "essential pillar" of society.
Lebanon has proposed modifications to "ideas" submitted by the United States on Hezbollah's disarmament, Aoun added, and a plan would be discussed at a cabinet meeting next week to "establish a timetable for implementation."
Aoun also demanded the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the release of Lebanese prisoners and "an immediate cessation of Israeli hostilities."
Lebanon, for its part, would implement the “withdrawal of the weapons of all armed forces, including Hezbollah, and their surrender to the Lebanese Army,” he said.
"Today, we must choose between collapse and stability," he said.
Hezbollah is the only group that held on to its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of "resistance" against Israel, which occupied southern Lebanon at the time.
Lebanon has also committed to disarming Palestinian groups that control refugee camps in the country.
The country is also grappling with a years-long economic crisis that has further eroded the state's ability to exercise its authority.
Source: Naharnet, Agence France Presse, Associated Press
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