Hezbollah indicates readiness to give up its arms if Israel completes Lebanon withdrawal – report

Hezbollah is open to negotiating the transfer of its weapons to the Lebanese government, an official in the group told Reuters, if the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) completes its withdrawal from Lebanon and stops its airstrikes there.

Throughout the duration of the ceasefire, Israel has continued striking Hezbollah infrastructure and operatives trying to transfer weapons, particularly in southern Lebanon, from where Hezbollah is obligated to withdraw under the terms of the ceasefire.

However, Israel has also struck in other regions of Lebanon, for example, Israeli fighter jets hit a weapons storage facility belonging to Hezbollah's Aerial Defense Unit in the Bekaa Valley on Tuesday evening.

“The presence of weapons in the area poses a threat to the State of Israel and constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the IDF stated.

The severe weakening of Hezbollah at the hands of Israel last year, which almost completely decapitated the group’s leadership, decimated its fighting force, and destroyed large parts of its weapons arsenal, enabled the formation of a new government in Lebanon.

The new President, Joseph Aoun, has vowed to bring all the arms in the country under state control.

However, he has also cautioned that this process would be carried out through negotiations with the terror group, which is still estimated to be stronger than the government’s official military.

Three political sources told Reuters that Aoun wants to start open talks with Hezbollah soon, and a Hezbollah official confirmed his group’s readiness to cooperate if Israel completes its withdrawal from the five outposts it holds on Lebanese territory.

“Hezbollah is ready to discuss the matter of its arms if Israel withdraws from the five points, and halts its aggression against the Lebanese,” the senior official said.

This declaration followed shortly after Reuters reported that Hezbollah’s Iran-backed allies in Iraq could disarm soon to avert looming U.S. airstrikes against them.

However, Jason Brodsky, Iran expert at the think tank United Against Nuclear Iran, estimates that this is part of an Iranian strategy.

“Just like the reports about Iran's regime ‘abandoning’ the Houthis and IRGC terrorists-backed militias in Iraq alleging they are ready to disarm, now comes this report about Hezbollah claiming it's ready to hold talks with Lebanon's president.”

“Tehran has been trying to protect itself by creating the impression its proxies are deescalating, but it will not change its grand strategy. It can scale up or down tactically, but its use of Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the muqawama in Iraq is not going away,” Brodsky wrote on 𝕏.

This is supported by recent reports that Iran has resumed arms transfers to Hezbollah by sea. In recent months, Israel has largely shut down transfers via air, and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria deprived the Iranians of their land routes through Iraq and Syria.

Now, the Saudi al-Hadath news reported that Hezbollah has begun resuming its control over the port of Beirut, which was demolished by the 2020 Beirut port explosion, caused by stored explosives likely belonging to the terror group.

A Western source told al-Hadath that Hezbollah has a network of collaborators among the port's dock workers and customs agents, who are smuggling funds and weapons into Lebanon without government control.

Despite occasional domestic opposition by the country’s other ethnic groups, which escalated into a near-civil war in 2008, Hezbollah has maintained that its weapons are necessary and meant to defend Lebanon against Israeli aggression.

The move to disarm the group has received strong support from the new Trump administration, with its deputy special envoy Morgan Ortagus recently likening Hezbollah to a “cancer” that needs to be “cut out.”

“It’s clear that Hezbollah has to be disarmed and it's clear that Israel is not going to accept terrorists shooting at them, into their country, and that's a position we understand,” Ortagus said in an interview with LBCI television.

While the terror group has committed to withdrawing from the area south of the Litani River under the terms of the ceasefire, two sources told Reuters that the group is now considering transferring weapons systems from the north of the Litani, including drones and anti-tank missiles, to the Lebanese military.