Lebanese Shiite ministers walk out of Cabinet meeting over Hezbollah disarmament plan

Independent

07-08-2025

Four Shiite members of Lebanon's Cabinet withdrew Thursday from a government meeting to protest a proposed plan to disarm the Shiite militant group and political party Hezbollah.
They included members of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc and the allied Amal party, as well as independent Shiite parliamentarian Fadi Makki. The meeting was adjourned after their exit.
Tensions have been rising in Lebanon amid increased domestic and international pressure for Hezbollah to give up its remaining arsenal after a bruising war with Israel, while the group has doubled down on its refusal to disarm.
Makki said on the social media platform X that he had 'tried to work on bridging the gaps and bringing viewpoints closer between all parties, but I didn't succeed.'
He said he had decided to withdraw from the meeting after the other Shiite ministers left. 'I couldn't bear the responsibility of making such a significant decision in the absence of a key component from the discussion," he said.
The plan to disarm Hezbollah
The Lebanese government asked the national army on Tuesday to prepare a plan in which only state institutions in the small nation will have weapons by the end of the year. The discussions were set to continue Thursday.
After Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Hezbollah accused the government of caving to U.S. and Israeli pressure and said it would 'treat this decision as if it does not exist.'
Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss giving up its remaining arsenal until Israel withdraws from five hills it is occupying inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes. The strikes have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members, since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its military capabilities and said it is protecting its border. Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for one attack fired across the border.
The ceasefire agreement mandated that both Hezbollah and Israel should withdraw from southern Lebanon but left vague how Hezbollah's weapons and military facilities farther north of the border should be treated, saying Lebanese authorities should dismantle unauthorized facilities starting with the area south of the Litani River.
Hezbollah maintains the deal only covers the area south of the Litani, while Israel and the U.S. say it mandates disarmament of the group throughout Lebanon.
International efforts to ensure peace
Andrea Tenenti, a spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, said that peacekeepers along with soldiers from the Lebanese army recently found a 'vast network of fortified tunnels' in different areas of southern Lebanon. They include 'several bunkers, artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers, hundreds of shells and rockets, anti-tank mines, and other explosive devices," he said.
A member of the U.S. Congress said that Washington will push Israel to withdraw from all of southern Lebanon if the Lebanese army asserts full control over the country.
'We will push hard to make sure that there is — and this is something that I will work with the Israelis on — a complete withdrawal in return for the Lebanese Armed Forces showing its ability to secure all Lebanon,' California Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa said, after meeting with President Joseph Aoun in Beirut.
He did not specify whether the U.S. would ask Israel to begin withdrawing its forces from the territory it is occupying in southern Lebanon before or after Hezbollah gives up its arsenal.
Issa, who is of Lebanese origin, said the U.S. must "help all the neighbors around understand that it is the exclusive right of the Lebanese Armed Forces to make decisions.'
'If there's something that goes wrong, the Lebanese Armed Forces will be asked to to be responsible,' he said.