MPs meet in plenary session focused on Hezbollah disarmament
Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan criticized Tuesday the government's lack of progress in restoring the state's authority and disarming Hezbollah as lawmakers convened in a plenary session focused on Hezbollah's disarmament.
"We don't want the government of hope to become a government of missed opportunities," Adwan said.
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Jebran Bassil said he supports Hezbollah's disarmament but not by force, while Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi urged "those who claim to be friends of Lebanon" to provide the Lebanese army with defensive weapons "to protect the country against the enemy."
"We all know there is no political decision to support the (Lebanese)army and there is a veto against arming it," he said.
MP Jamil al-Sayyed criticized U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein, Morgan Ortagus, and Tom Barrack, who he said "threatened Lebanon with civil war". "It's as if we've become an experimental field for these envoys."
MP Fouad Makhzoumi called for Hezbollah's disarmament and proposed to discuss it in a cabinet session.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nahar Net
13 minutes ago
- Nahar Net
Israel says sending humanitarian aid to Druze in Syria
by Naharnet Newsdesk 18 July 2025, 12:11 Israel said Friday it was sending humanitarian aid to Syria's Sweida province, following days of deadly clashes in the Druze heartland. "In light of the recent attacks targeting the Druze community in Sweida and the severe humanitarian situation in the area, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has ordered the urgent transfer of humanitarian aid to the Druze population in the region," the foreign ministry said in a statement. The two million shekel (nearly $600,000) package includes food parcels and medical supplies, the ministry said, noting it had previously sent humanitarian aid to the Druze in Syria in March. The Sweida area witnessed sectarian bloodshed this week, with hundreds reportedly killed in clashes pitting Druze fighters against Sunni Bedouin tribes and the army and its allies. Israel carried out air strikes against government troops in and around Sweida area, with the stated objectives of preventing a build-up of the Syrian military near its borders and protecting the Druze community. It also shelled government buildings in Damascus on Wednesday to pressure Syria's Islamist-led government to withdraw its troops from the Druze heartland. Government forces pulled out of the area on Thursday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 594 people had been killed in the clashes. Earlier on Friday, the Israeli army denied reports on the Syrian state news agency, SANA, that it had conducted additional strikes near Sweida on Thursday night.
Nahar Net
13 minutes ago
- Nahar Net
Hezbollah says Abdallah's unjust detention 'stain on French judiciary'
by Naharnet Newsdesk 18 July 2025, 12:03 Hezbollah has welcomed the decision of a French appeals court to release pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats. The injustice suffered by Georges Abdallah would remain a stain on the record of the French judicial and political system, Hezbollah said in a statement Thursday. The group said it hoped the court decision would be implemented amid fears of American and Israeli pressure. Israel's embassy in Paris meanwhile released a statement saying it regretted the decision to release Abdallah. "Such terrorists, enemies of the free world, should spend their life in prison," it said. Abdallah, 74, is one of the longest-serving prisoners in France, where most convicts on life sentences are freed after less than 30 years. He has been up for release for 25 years, but the United States -- a civil party to the case -- has consistently opposed him leaving prison. Abdallah was detained in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of U.S. military attaché Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris. Lebanese of Maronite Christian heritage, he has always insisted he is not a "criminal" but a "fighter" for the rights of Palestinians, whom he said were targeted, along with Lebanon, by the United States and Israel. The Paris Appeals Court ordered he be freed from a prison in the south of France on July 25, on condition that he leave French territory and never return. It said the length of his detention had been "disproportionate" and that he no longer represented a danger to the public. On Thursday, Abdallah told left-wing deputy Andree Taurinya, who visited him in prison, that his liberation was the result of efforts by his supporters. "The fact that they accepted to free me is thanks to this growing mobilization," he told the MP, in the presence of an AFP reporter. Several sources before the hearing said that it was planned for him to be flown to Paris and then to Beirut. Prosecutors can file an appeal with France's highest court, but any such request is not expected to be processed fast enough to halt his release next week. - 'Delighted' - The detainee's brother, Robert Abdallah, in Lebanon told AFP he was overjoyed. "We're delighted. I didn't expect the French judiciary to make such a decision nor for him to ever be freed, especially after so many failed requests for release," he said. "For once, the French authorities have freed themselves from Israeli and U.S. pressure," he added. Lebanese authorities have repeatedly said Abdallah should be freed from jail, and had written to the appeals court to say they would organize his return home. Abdallah's lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset also welcomed the decision, calling it a "political scandal he was not released earlier". Lebanon's charge d'affaires in Paris, Ziad Taan, told AFP the country was "extremely satisfied" by the decision, adding that Abdallah will be "welcome" in Lebanon. In November last year, a French court ordered Abdallah to be released on condition that he leave France. But France's anti-terror prosecutors, arguing that he had not changed his political views, appealed the decision, which was suspended. A verdict was supposed to have been delivered in February, but the Paris appeals court postponed it over compensation payments. - 'Past symbol' - The court re-examined the latest request for his release last month. During the closed-door hearing, Abdallah's lawyer told the judges that 16,000 euros had been placed in the prisoner's bank account at the disposal of civil parties in the case, including the United States, according to several sources who attended. Abdallah was wounded as a teenager when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 in the early years of the country's civil war. As an adult, he founded the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), a Marxist pro-Syria and anti-Israel group that has now been dissolved. After his arrest in 1984, French police discovered submachine guns and transceiver stations in one of his Paris apartments. The appeals court in February however noted that the FARL "had not committed a violent action since 1984" and that Abdallah "today represented a past symbol of the Palestinian struggle". Lebanon hosts tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to the United Nations, most descendants of those who fled or were expelled from their land during the creation of Israel in 1948.
Nahar Net
13 minutes ago
- Nahar Net
Syrian govt forces set to re-enter Sweida after renewed Druze-Bedouin clashes
by Naharnet Newsdesk 18 July 2025, 12:06 Renewed clashes broke out overnight between Druze armed groups and members of Bedouin clans in southern Syria, and government forces were preparing to deploy again to the area Friday after pulling out under a ceasefire agreement that halted several days of violence earlier this week, officials said. Government security forces agreed with some of the Druze factions that they would re-enter the area to impose stability and protect state institutions, according to two Syrian officials who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Syrian government forces had largely pulled out of the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze religious minority that threatened to unravel the country's fragile post-war transition. The conflict drew airstrikes against Syrian forces by neighboring Israel in defense of the Druze minority before most of the fighting was halted by a truce announced Wednesday that was mediated by the U.S., Turkey and Arab countries. Under that agreement, Druze factions and clerics would be left to maintain internal security in Sweida, Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa said Thursday. The clashes initially began between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes Sunday before government forces intervened and took the Bedouins' side against the Druze. The fighting killed hundreds of people over four days, with allegations that government-affiliated fighters executed Druze civilians and looted and burned homes. Israel intervened, launching dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and striking the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus in a major escalation of its involvement. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel, where they are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the Israeli military. After the ceasefire and withdrawal of government forces, clashes once again flared between the Druze and Bedouin groups in parts of Sweida province. State media reported Druze militias carried out revenge attacks against Bedouin communities, leading to a wave of displacement. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
