Occupying Israeli army forces patrol in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Shuba in southern Lebanon on Feb. 17, 2025. (Credit: Rabih Daher/AFP)
Israeli intelligence passed along to Lebanon by the U.S. has helped the Lebanese Army locate and dismantle Hezbollah’s remaining weapons stockpiles and military posts in the South, senior Arab officials told the Wall Street Journal in a report published Wednesday. Some of the confiscated weapons are destroyed, according to the army, but whatever is usable is absorbed into the state's historically understocked arsenal.
The report, which includes an interview with Prime Minsiter Nawaf Salam, cites him as saying that 80 percent of the government's objectives in disarming militias in the South have been accomplished. While Hezbollah was the primary armed group active in the South by far, several Palestinian and other Lebanese groups also fought against Israel during the 2023-2024 war.
The government's progress is apparently surprising to U.S. and Israeli officials, with WSJ citing one Israeli military official as saying that he sees areas where the Lebanese Army is "way more effective than expected," despite several statement from Israel since the cease-fire was put in place last November claiming that the Lebanese Army's failure to assuage Israel's concerns about potential Hezbollah attacks is why Israel is still occupying five points on the Lebanese side of the Blue Line.
However, according to this official, the Israeli army is "generally please" with current state of disarmament, "and we are expecting it to continue.”
“All over the Lebanese territory, the state should have a monopoly on arms,” said emphatically during the interview. “We don’t want to put the country onto a civil-war track, but believe me, this is not going to affect our commitment to the need to extend and consolidate the authority of the state.”
Salam sentiments are echoed by senior officials in both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, including President Joseph Aoun, who say they hope to avoid intra-Lebanese violence and are approaching disarmament talks with a sensitivity to the political atmosphere.
During a speech addressing the Lebanese diaspora in the UAE, Salam criticized the persistent Israeli occupation of several areas in southern Lebanon, explaining that it prevented the government from extending its control in the area and effectively reclaiming the monopoly on arms.
Hezbollah's messaging on its disarmament has been murky, with statements from its secretary-general both supportive of the state's extended sovereignty and unity, while also insisting that his party wouldn't "let anyone disarm it," implying that the process would not be forced upon it without its approval. Aoun is leading discussions with Hezbollah as international pressure builds for the process to be carried through to completion.
Speaking to WSJ, Randa Slim, a fellow at the Johns Hopkins University-based Foreign Policy Institute said: “Unless Hezbollah is willing and ready to disarm itself, I don’t see a scenario where a Lebanese government will take the decision to disarm them by force.”
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