A boy attends the funerals of Hezbollah fighters, killed before the ceasefire on November 27 with Israel, in the village of Taybé, in Southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, on April 6, 2025. (Credit: AFP/Rabih Daher.)
Believing that the best approach for disarming Hezbollah is through "dialogue," President Joseph Aoun, who has made the state's "monopoly of arms" his leitmotif, announced on Tuesday for the first time that "fighters (of Hezbollah) will be able to join the army and undergo integration training," specifying that such an approach had "been done at the end of the Lebanese Civil War with several other parties." His remarks were sharply criticized online by those hostile to Hezbollah.
The president, however, clarified that it was not a matter of reproducing "the experience of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces by integrating Hezbollah into the army or allowing Hezbollah to become an independent unit within this army." The Popular Mobilization Forces is a coalition of predominantly pro-Iranian paramilitary groups integrated into the Iraqi state.
"No, we do not want Hezbollah members in military uniform. They must be tried for their crimes committed inside Lebanon, their entry into Syria, and exercising terrorism and violence against a country and its people," asserted Lebanese activist Kinda al-Khatib, convicted by a military court in December 2020 for "collaboration" with Israel.
This sentiment echoes that of the spokesperson for the Lebanese Forces (LF), who published a statement on X on Tuesday calling to prosecute the party "for what it has committed against the Lebanese since 1991," asserting that "unlike the Lebanese Civil War, which was imposed on everyone and required a general amnesty, the party has deliberately oppressed, humiliated, and subdued the Lebanese under the framework of the Iranian expansionist project."
"Thousands of Fighters Would Be Left Idle"
The same sentiment was expressed by lawyer Joy Lahoud, known for his criticisms against Hezbollah. "The Lebanese should not pay a single penny of taxes to finance the salaries of these people. How can you replace the doctrine of 'Wali al-Faqih' (a key concept of the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979, recognizing the spiritual and temporal authority of the Iranian Supreme Leader) with a Lebanese doctrine? How can these individuals be absolved of dozens of crimes?" he posted on his X account.
More moderate, journalist Ali Hamade of the daily An-Nahar, usually a critic of Hezbollah, explained understanding "the objective" behind the president's remarks, as "thousands of Hezbollah fighters would be left idle" if the party were demilitarized, which could pose a "security risk."