Rajji: 'Hezbollah cannot hand over its weapons without an Iranian decision'

BEIRUT — Foreign Minister Joe Rajji said Saturday that the handover of Hezbollah’s weapons to the Lebanese authorities depends on an Iranian decision, expressing regret that the party “is not convinced of handing over its weapons to the state” and denouncing its “daily signs of defiance” toward the government.

The minister was referring to the latest remarks by Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, who reiterated his refusal to disarm and argued that the Lebanese state had made a “free concession” to Israel by appointing a civilian to the cease-fire monitoring committee (“the mechanism”).

“Hezbollah cannot hand over its weapons without an Iranian decision. Today, its goal is to buy time and preserve its internal influence in order to regain its authority,” he told the website al-Arabiya. The foreign minister added that the party is currently rebuilding itself in multiple ways — financially, among them, as its officials have indicated — in order to restore its internal influence as soon as the opportunity arises.

“Its actions are therefore no longer limited to the South or to the fight against Israel,” he stressed.

Rajji stated that “the disarmament of Hezbollah and the dismantling of its military structure are Lebanese demands, independent of international requests,” noting that he raised this point on Friday before the visiting U.N. Security Council delegation in Beirut.

He explained that the plan to collect weapons south of the Litani River will conclude at the end of the year, and that the second phase will begin next January, covering the area further north, between the south of the Litani and the Awali River, near Saida.

Regarding the invitation to visit Tehran extended to him by his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, the minister said that the response to this request for a bilateral meeting would be delivered via a diplomatic note.

Rajji has nevertheless already made his decision, declaring on Friday that he will not go to Iran under the current circumstances, while saying he is willing to meet his counterpart in a third country.