The Lebanese government meeting at the presidential palace in Baabda, on Aug. 7, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient Today.)
BEIRUT — A Hezbollah source told L’Orient-Le Jour Thursday night that Amal and Hezbollah's ministers will walk out of Friday’s Cabinet session on the state’s monopoly on weapons as soon as the debate turns to the army’s plan for disarming militias.
“We refuse to discuss the plan, even without a timetable,” the source said.
According to information obtained by L’OLJ, the parties are also demanding that the army’s plan not be listed as the first item on the agenda. The army, for its part, is expected to present a 15-month timeline to complete the mission, the same sources said. Despite pressure, President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam are moving toward adopting it, while showing flexibility to secure the duo's participation in the session.
Earlier Thursday, Labor Minister Mohamad Haidar told Russian agency Sputnik that Amal and Hezbollah's ministers would attend the Cabinet meeting without having made a final decision on whether to withdraw from the government.
Haidar, who represents Hezbollah’s share in Cabinet, said there was “currently no decision to withdraw from the government,” though “all options remain on the table.” He warned that any decision imposed by force would “worsen the internal crisis” and give a pretext for “foreign interventions.”
The limitation of arms, he said, “can only be achieved through a comprehensive defense strategy and stronger support for the army.” He added that the fight against Israel “must not be turned into an internal battle” and that political disputes should be settled “through dialogue.”
Haidar and three other Shiite ministers — Rakan Nasreddine (Health, Hezbollah), Tamara Elzein (Environment, Amal) and Fadi Makki (Administrative Development, independent) — walked out of the Aug. 7 Cabinet session after the government adopted the U.S. road map calling for Hezbollah’s disarmament by year’s end.
Cabinet's fifth Shiite minister, Yassine Jaber (Finance, Amal), missed that meeting because he was abroad, but later publicly backed restoring the state’s monopoly on weapons.
On reconstruction after 13 months of war between Hezbollah and Israel, Haidar said limited funds would soon be sent to Lebanon and that the government has already begun work with its own resources while awaiting possible international aid. In early August, he traveled to Iraq, where authorities pledged $20 million in support.
A World Bank study published last winter, before Israel’s 2025 strikes, estimated reconstruction needs at $11 billion. On Aug. 19, the finance minister said the government would allocate $335 million to rebuild damaged infrastructure.
Haidar also confirmed that parliamentary elections will take place “on schedule” next spring and that any change to the electoral law is up to Parliament.
Friday’s Cabinet session comes amid political maneuvering to ease tensions, as Hezbollah continues to refuse to hand over its weapons. Secretary-General Naim Qassem said his party would act “as if the government decision [on disarmament] did not exist” and that Hezbollah ministers could not attend a session solely to debate the issue.
To secure the ministers' presence, four items have been added to the agenda, beyond the disarmament plan, as part of a compromise between the Cabinet and the two parties.
The Nov. 27, 2024, cease-fire agreement and U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 both stipulate that Hezbollah must surrender its weapons nationwide and that the area south of the Litani River must remain free of armed groups other than the Lebanese Army and U.N. peacekeepers. Since the start of the cease-fire, the army, in coordination with U.N. forces, has dismantled hundreds of Hezbollah military structures in that zone.
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