Aoun holds 'positive' and 'frank' meeting with Raad
President Joseph Aoun held a meeting Thursday with MP Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc.
“It was a session of frankness on many files,” the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Ahed news portal reported.
“The meeting was positive, pending further crystallization of the picture in the coming days,” al-Ahed added.
The talks come days before a crucial cabinet session scheduled for Tuesday that will tackle the issue of monopolizing arms in the hands of the state.
President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that Lebanon is determined to disarm Hezbollah, a step it has come under heavy U.S. pressure to take.
In a key speech marking Army Day, 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."
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."
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 Tuesday 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."
Source: Naharnet
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