On September 5, the government of Lebanon adopted a plan for the Lebanese Army to disarm Hezbollah, the leading anti-imperialist resistance organization in the country. The announcement of this plan comes amid continuous Israeli violations of the November 2024 ceasefire agreement, with Israeli forces maintaining their occupation of parts of the southern Lebanese border area and carrying out airstrikes across southern Lebanon, including in Beirut.
The plan is from the diktat of US imperialism and is imposed under threats and bribes, including most recently $230 million in early October for the Lebanese government’s armed forces.
It is unclear how or when the Lebanese government will attempt to disarm Hezbollah—the government for its part has not revealed a time-frame or methods for the disarmament plan.
In late August, thousands of protesters took to the streets in southern Lebanon to express opposition to the disarmament plans. Protesters carried banners reading “Death to America” as well as the flags of Hezbollah and its allied Amal Movement. Also in August, Hezbollah members of the Lebanese parliament and Amal Movement ministers walked out of parliament in protest of the plan.
On August 25, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem appeared on video to reiterate that Hezbollah will not surrender its weapons. In the video, Qassem emphasized the necessity for armed resistance to defend Lebanon against Israeli aggression.
“If you truly want sovereignty, then stop the aggression. We will not abandon the weapons that honour us, nor the weapons that protect us from our enemy,” Qassem said. “If this government continues in its current form, it cannot be trusted to safeguard Lebanon’s sovereignty”, he continued, while his statement since have called on the government to work with the resistance to counter US-Zionist aggression.
Since the failure of its invasion of Lebanon in October 2024 in the face of the armed resistance led by Hezbollah, the Zionist state of Israel has played a treacherous double-game to avoid total defeat. Since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah in November 2024–which stipulated the cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon following the Lebanese resistance defeating Israel’s 2024 invasion of the country–the Israeli occupation forces have remained stationed at several points within the Lebanese border and continue their acts of aggression with continuous drone strikes.
The US imperialists have provided diplomatic cover for the Israeli’s flagrant violations of the ceasefire agreement, taking no action to enforce Israeli compliance with the terms of the agreement while sending envoys to Beirut to push for the disarmament of Hezbollah. The motivations behind these maneuvers are clear–the US imperialists hope to facilitate Israel’s military expansion into Lebanon and the demilitarization of the country.
Image: Hezbollah flags raised in South Lebanon. Credit: Al Manar Photo Archive.
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