Hezbollah open to dialogue on disarmament despite recent threats, say officials close to Lebanese president

Sources close to the Lebanese Presidential Office told the pro-Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat this morning (Sunday) that the office is confident Hezbollah will agree to engage in dialogue regarding the organization's disarmament, despite recent threats made by senior figures in the group.

According to the sources, the statements made by Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, are contradictory: “No one has threatened to disarm Hezbollah by force. All issues will be resolved through dialogue, and Qassem himself has expressed willingness to engage in such dialogue – but he has demanded that no pressure be placed on the organization at this time.”

The sources emphasized that the Lebanese government continues to implement its decisions stipulating that weapons should only be in the hands of the state, and that the Lebanese army will be deployed throughout all areas of the country.

This stance contradicts Qassem’s statements from two days ago, in which he said explicitly, “We will not allow anyone to disarm Hezbollah or the resistance's weapons. Disarming Hezbollah – take that out of your lexicon. These weapons are what gave life and freedom to our people, they are what liberated our land.”

Qassem added, “We will fight anyone who attacks the resistance or works to disarm it, just as we stood up to Israel,” warning that “there is a massive media effort to portray Hezbollah’s weapons as Lebanon’s biggest problem.”

In his speech, Qassem also responded to calls to forcibly disarm Hezbollah: “Do you know what it means to disarm Hezbollah by force? You're doing Israel a free favor – a country that brought all its forces, all its capabilities, and enlisted the U.S. and Europe behind it, and still couldn't take a single weapon.”

“This is also an internal war you're trying to spark between Hezbollah and the army. We have mutual understanding with the army – we’re in the same trench against Israel. You want to create war between us? And you’re the ones who want to build a state? That would be a civil war, and it won’t happen,” Qassem warned.

Regarding the current tension with Israel, Qassem said, “Who said we’ll wait patiently until the moment Israel achieves even part of its goals? Israel keeps attacking – one site, one person, one place. Why? Because it’s calculating. Yes, we are patient, but we are patient wisely.”