Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Baabda on Jan. 29, 2025. (Photo taken from the Lebanese President's X account)
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stated on Friday that "the page on Hezbollah's arms has been turned," as the issue of the party's arsenal is at the forefront of Lebanon's political scene.
"The page has been turned regarding Hezbollah's arms after the ministerial declaration. The phrase 'people, army, resistance,' is now a thing of the past," Salam said in an interview with the Saudi pan-Arab channel Al-Arabiya. He also pointed out that "the ministerial declaration clearly states the monopoly of arms within state institutions, and everyone is committed to this, no one opposes it." However, he specified that "concentrating the armament in the hands of the state will not happen overnight."
The Salam government's ministerial declaration, which followed the inaugural speech of President Joseph Aoun, was the first ministerial declaration since Taif not to mention the "people's right to resist by all means against Israeli occupation." Instead, the new ministerial team said that "the state is entirely responsible for defending its territory" and must "hold the monopoly on arms."
Since forming Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's government in February, Hezbollah linked discussions about its arsenal to dialogue and a national defense strategy. During a government on March 13, the debate over the arsenal of the Party of God was initiated by the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb, who called for establishing a timeline for disarmament. Shortly after, ministers from the Amal Movement, Tamara al-Zein (Environment) and Yassine Jaber (Finance), in the cabinet, expressed their opposition to any disarmament of Hezbollah as long as Israel occupies five points in southern Lebanon. On Wednesday, an exchange of statements on the subject also opposed an Amal MP, Qassem Hashem, to one of his Lebanese Forces colleagues, Fadi Karam.
During his interview Friday, Salam also said that "Israel uses Hezbollah's arms as a pretext to maintain a presence in southern Lebanon, while this presence is illegal under international law and all agreements." He stated that "Israel must completely withdraw from southern Lebanon, and we are pressing for this."
"Only the state is responsible for liberating Lebanese territories from Israel," he added. "The international community recognizes the effective role of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon."
The resistance, a guarantee
The Jaafarite mufti, Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan, close to Hezbollah, reacted to Salam's remarks by stating that "erasing the resistance would mean erasing Lebanon and its sovereignty" and that "no one will be able to erase it."
"You are leading the government of a country that the resistance has liberated and continues to defend with all its strength and sacrifices to preserve its existence, sovereignty, and entity," he said, emphasizing that "for decades, Lebanon's existence, sovereignty, and weight have rested on the sacrifices of the resistance and the power of its capabilities."
"The resistance represents half a century of sovereign sacrifices, meaning it is equivalent to half the age of Lebanon since its foundation," the mufti continued. "Erasing it would mean erasing Lebanon and its sovereignty. Without the sacrifices of the last war and the defeat of the [Israeli] army at the edge of Khiam and other front villages, there would be no country, no capital, no sovereignty, no independence."
Qabalan argued that "monopolizing weapons involves acquiring national power capable of containing Israel's strength and breaking its hegemony, not remaining spectators in the face of its aggression and occupation."
He stated that "the resistance is ... an existential guarantee for Lebanon. No one in the world can erase it" and that the solution was to exploit the resistance "through a defense policy, not to eliminate the greatest sovereign force guaranteeing Lebanon's existence."
Hussein Hajj Hassan, a Hezbollah MP and former minister, also stated on Friday evening on LBCI that "the issue of handing over Hezbollah's weapons to the state is still not approved by the party" and that this debate must take place "within the framework of the defense strategy and a national debate." He emphasized that Hezbollah "cooperates with the Lebanese army in the south and north of the Litani" and that "the decision of war or peace ... is in Israel's hands," and not Hezbollah's as it is accused.
Hezbollah was significantly weakened after its war with Israel, which began by opening a support front with Gaza in October 2023 and ended with a cease-fire in November 2024. The cease-fire agreement stipulates the disarmament of the party and its withdrawal from the area south of the Litani, where the Lebanese army is already deployed. However, the Israeli army retains five points on Lebanese territory and continues its operations against Hezbollah members daily, notably in southern Lebanon.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.