Lebanese Foreign Minister Joe Rajji. (Credit: Foreign Ministry press office)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadallah referred to Foreign Affairs Minister Joe Rajji as a "militiaman," in response to the latter's comment in a virtual policy forum with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Dec. 23, in which he stated that the Lebanese Army is "capable of confronting Hezbollah militarily if necessary."
These comments had resurfaced on Wednesday.
Rajji's comments were reshared by the Saudi state-owned television channel Al Arabiya and local media outlets on Wednesday, two weeks after the interview, and nine days after the Washington Institute published the interview on its website on Dec. 29.
This date coincides with a Cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday, at which the government will hear the army commander's monthly review of the implementation of the disarmament plan in Lebanon.
This plan must soon pass to its second phase, the disarmament north of the Litani, which Hezbollah strongly opposes.
Commenting on Hezbollah's refusal to hand over its weapons north of the Litani River under the pretext that the cease-fire agreement only mentions the area south of the River, Rajji told the Washington Institute: "[Hezbollah] refuses to accept U.N. Security Council resolutions and the terms of the 2024 cease-fire agreement that stipulated full disarmament throughout the entirety of Lebanon. The texts are very clear; Hezbollah is either lying or doesn’t know how to read."
The cease-fire agreement refers to the 1701 UNSC resolution (2006), which calls for the disarmament of all militias in Lebanon.
"Now the group is threatening civil war if the Lebanese Army proceeds with the process north of the Litani. Iranian leaders are also threatening violence. Warnings of civil war constitute a form of blackmail against the Lebanese government. Hezbollah is hoping to buy time, reconstitute itself, and continue its dominance of the country ... In any event, the Lebanese Army is capable of confronting Hezbollah militarily if necessary," the foreign minister, who is part of the Lebanese Forces' (LF) share in the Cabinet, added.
Reacting to these comments, Fadlallah said on Wednesday in response to a question in Parliament, as reported by the state-run National News Agency (NNA): "It is clear that, as a militia member who took part in the civil war against the Lebanese people, he does not distinguish between his affiliation with the war council and his role as an employee of the Cabinet."
He added that Rajji is "still living in the culture of war in which he was raised in his party’s school, which specialized in killing the national army and looks for opportunities to target [the army], the state and the Lebanese people, but its delusions will fail once again."
Regarding the Lebanese Army's disarmament efforts, Rajji said that the army "cannot simultaneously disarm and dismantle Hezbollah both south and north of the Litani," noting that "as the army continues intensive operations in the South, it is working to contain the group’s weapons in the north."
Rajji stressed that "containment is not an alternative to disarmament," adding that when the army moves to the second phase, it "will continue the disarmament process in each region until Hezbollah has been fully stripped of its weapons."
The republication of Rajji's comments on Wednesday comes as Israel escalated its attacks against Hezbollah in recent days, prior to a meeting of the committee supervising the Nov. 2024 cease-fire that took place on Wednesday.
