The Lebanese Army deployed at the site of a demonstration organized by Hezbollah supporters, on Aug. 7, 2025, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. (Credit: Ibrahim Amro/AFP)
The government’s decisions on Aug. 5 and Aug. 7, affirming the monopoly on armed force and calling for the collection of Hezbollah’s weapons, mark an important and courageous moment in the process of restoring a sovereign Lebanese state.Since the denunciation in 1987 of the 1969 Cairo Agreement, which legalized the presence and use of weapons by non-governmental and foreign forces on Lebanese soil, a historic opportunity to follow a similar path has now emerged.This long-awaited outcome comes in the wake of the tragic conclusion of the war launched by Hezbollah in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023. The arrangements that led to the Nov. 27 cease-fire saw the decisive intervention of the speaker of Parliament, acting in the name and in place of the leaders of a brotherly party that became bogged down and defeated.Such displays of solidarity...
The government’s decisions on Aug. 5 and Aug. 7, affirming the monopoly on armed force and calling for the collection of Hezbollah’s weapons, mark an important and courageous moment in the process of restoring a sovereign Lebanese state.Since the denunciation in 1987 of the 1969 Cairo Agreement, which legalized the presence and use of weapons by non-governmental and foreign forces on Lebanese soil, a historic opportunity to follow a similar path has now emerged.This long-awaited outcome comes in the wake of the tragic conclusion of the war launched by Hezbollah in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023. The arrangements that led to the Nov. 27 cease-fire saw the decisive intervention of the speaker of Parliament, acting in the name and in place of the leaders of a brotherly party that became bogged down and defeated.Such displays of...
