Graffiti depicting former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hanging on the rubble of the historic souk in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, destroyed by Israeli strikes the previous year. (Photo taken on Sept. 23, 2025, by: Matthieu Karam/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Israeli and U.S. pressure on Lebanon's army to speedily disarm Hezbollah is intensifying, with the army chief cancelling a visit to Washington after officials snubbed him, a military official told AFP.
The Lebanese Army has been beefing up its presence in south Lebanon near the Israeli border since a U.S.-brokered cease-fire last November sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Under a government-approved plan, the army is supposed to dismantle Hezbollah military infrastructure south of the Litani river — some 30 kilometers from the border — by the end of the year, before tackling the rest of the country.
The military official, requesting anonymity as the matter is sensitive, said "we respect the timeline approved by the government and which the United States and other concerned parties area aware of."
But the official expressed concern that "systematic U.S. and Israeli pressure could pave the way for an escalation of Israeli strikes," adding that "the demand to disarm Hezbollah across all Lebanon before the end of the year is impossible."
Israel has continued its attacks on Lebanon on a near-daily basis, with intensified strikes in recent weeks. It also still maintains troops in five areas in south Lebanon.
A military official said the army was being pressured to search homes in south Lebanon, though the army has so far pushed back on this point.
The Lebanese Army has beefed up troop presence near the border since the truce, with some 9,000 soldiers now deployed there, the official added.
Israel as the 'enemy'
Lebanon's cash-strapped army, which counts some 80,000 personnel and depends heavily on U.S. aid, is seen as a pillar of stability in the crisis-hit country.
President Joseph Aoun served as army chief before being elected as president in January with the backing of the international community.
His successor, Rodolph Haykal, was scheduled to visit Washington this week, though his trip was called off after U.S. political and military officials cancelled their meetings with him just hours before he was scheduled to depart on Tuesday, the military official told AFP.
Those who cancelled included influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who in a statement on X slammed what he said was Haykal's "weak almost non-existent effort to disarm Hezbollah."
Graham also criticized an army statement that referred to Israel as the "enemy" — a standard term used in Lebanon, even in official discourse, since the country has been technically at war with Israel since its establishment in 1948.
The statement in question condemned "the Israeli enemy's insistence on violating Lebanese sovereignty" and was issued after the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Israeli soldiers shot at its peacekeepers on Sunday.
Since the cease-fire, UNIFIL said it "has recorded over 7,500 air violations, almost 2,500 ground violations north of the Blue Line, and over 360 left behind weapons caches that were referred" to the Lebanese Army.
A committee comprising the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and UNIFIL holds regular meetings to monitor the cease-fire.
12 Lebanese soldiers killed in disarmament operations
Since the truce, the army has been coordinating with the committee and UNIFIL to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure despite its limited equipment and means, with 12 soldiers killed during such operations in recent months.
"The Lebanese Army is being asked to do what the Israeli army was unable to accomplish during the war with its missiles, aircraft and technology," the official charged, referring to demands the army search houses in the South, and noting it lacks the personnel and expertise to do so.
The army also seeks to avoid civil conflict in Hezbollah's southern heartland, they added.
A promised international donor conference to support the army is in the works, but nothing concrete has yet materialized.
Hezbollah was created after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. It is the only group to have kept its weapons since the country's 1975-1990 civil war in the name of "resistance" against Israel.
The group says it is respecting the cease-fire but refuses to surrender its weapons so long as Israeli attacks persist and the Lebanese Army is not sufficiently equipped to defend the country.
An Israeli military official told AFP's Jerusalem bureau that the cease-fire monitoring mechanism was working but "not as fast as we want, not in the places that we want."
Humanitarian convoy reaches Rmeish, Ain Ibl, Dibil despite obstacles
