'Hezbollah is not in position to impose its conditions': Kataeb

The Kataeb party said that Hezbollah is "not in a position to impose its conditions on the state," emphasizing that the "issue of illegal weapons must be resolved swiftly to restore Lebanon's sovereignty," the party said in a statement Tuesday.

This comes after Hezbollah MP evaded a journalist's question, asking him to comment on Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's call for the party's disarmament, saying that he "won't reply to preserve goodwill" with Salam.

The statement called "for an urgent, decisive resolution of the illegal arms issue, stressing that it had become a national priority."

International pressure on the Lebanese government to move swiftly ahead with disarming Hezbollah — significantly weakened after its war with Israel during which the latter bombed southern and eastern Lebanon extensively — has been met with insistence that the subject requires careful handling.

In parallel, the Lebanese Army's expanded deployment in the South is ongoing, where it is dismantling weapon caches and military posts belonging to Hezbollah.

The cease-fire agreement reached on Nov. 27 mandates the dismantling of Hezbollah's military infrastructure between the Litani River and the Blue Line, a stretch of approximately 30 kilometers.

It also calls for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, which Israel has refused to do, occupying five military outposts on Lebanese territory. The Israeli air force conducts near-daily air strikes in Lebanon, claiming to be targeting Hezbollah, while killing and wounding mostly civilians.