Shiite ministers walk out as Lebanon's Cabinet debates army plan to
disarm Hezbollah
[September 06, 2025]
By ABBY SEWELL
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Cabinet discussed Friday a plan drawn up by the
Lebanese army to disarm the Hezbollah militant group and consolidate
weapons in the hands of the state but appeared to back off from a
previously announced deadline to implement it by the end of the year.
Upon the arrival of the army chief, Gen. Rudolph Haikal, ministers from
Hezbollah’s political bloc as well as the allied Shiite Amal party and
an independent Shiite minister, Fadi Makki, withdrew from the meeting
room. The Hezbollah and Amal ministers then left the government palace.
The Shiite ministers had also walked out in protest from the meeting
last month in which the Cabinet commissioned the army with drawing up a
disarmament plan under which only state institutions in the small nation
will have weapons by the end of the year.
Information Minister Paul Morcos said after Friday's meeting that the
army “will start implementing the plan, but according to the available
resources — there are limited material and human logistical resources”
and that the military “has the right of operational discretion.”
He did not specify a new timeline for implementation.
Morcos also said that Israel had not held up its end of the agreement
laid out in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest
Israel-Hezbollah war in November. Since then, Israeli forces have
continued to occupy five strategic hills inside Lebanese territory and
to carry out near-daily airstrikes.
“Israel, like Lebanon, has clear obligations” under the agreement,
Morcos said. “However, its continued violations constitute evidence of
its reneging on these obligations and seriously threaten regional
security and stability. ”
Israel’s military says its strikes aim to prevent Hezbollah from
rearming and to protect residents of its northern border area.
Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has been under increasing domestic and
international pressure to give up its remaining arsenal.
Hezbollah officials have said that the group will not consider
disarmament until Israel withdraws from all Lebanese territory and halts
its attacks.
After last month’s decision to pursue a disarmament plan, Hezbollah
accused the government of caving to United States and Israeli pressure
and said it would “treat this decision as if it does not exist.”
A Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity, in accordance
with the group’s procedures, said Friday that the ministers had agreed
to withdraw when the army commander arrived “because we consider that
this plan comes out of an illegal decision ... and we will not debate a
matter that is built on a basis that we do not recognize as legal.”
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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, centre background, leads a cabinet
meeting to discuss the army plan for disarming Hezbollah, at the
Presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 5,
2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese officials proceeded with caution on disarmament, fearing
that an attempt to take Hezbollah’s remaining weapons by force could
trigger civil conflict.
Since the ceasefire, the Lebanese army has regularly collected
caches of weapons and ammunition from the area south of the Litani
River, from which Hezbollah has largely withdrawn, but the group’s
heavier missiles and drones have remained hidden.
The Israel-Hezbollah war started when Hezbollah began firing rockets
across the border on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after a deadly Hamas-led
incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Israel
responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides
became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war
in late September last year.
The Israel-Hezbollah war killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon,
including hundreds of civilians, and caused destruction worth $11
billion, according to the World Bank. Much-needed international
funding for reconstruction is likely to be contingent on Hezbollah's
disarmament.
In the days ahead of Friday’s Cabinet session, Israel intensified
its strikes in southern Lebanon. Lebanese health officials said
Thursday that a series of Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon the
day before killed four people and injured 17, including four
children.
Lebanon’s foreign ministry in a statement condemned the strikes and
called on “the international community to pressure Israel to halt
its ongoing attacks and respect Lebanon’s sovereignty, territorial
integrity, and the safety of its people.”
The Israeli army said in statements that it had targeted Hezbollah
military sites and a facility in the village of Ansariyeh that it
said was storing “engineering equipment designated for the
organization’s reconstruction and to advance terrorist plans.” An
Associated Press photographer who visited the site afterwards found
a lot storing bulldozers.
On Wednesday the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL,
said Israeli drones dropped four grenades close to its peacekeepers
as they were working to clear roadblocks near the border. The
Israeli army said that it didn’t intentionally target the
peacekeepers, but dropped several sonic bombs near a suspect in the
border area.
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