Hezbollah fighters in modified all-terrain vehicles during a military parade near Mlita, south Lebanon, on May 21, 2023. (Credit: Jad Abou Jaoudeh/OLJ archives)
BEIRUT — Foreign Minister Joe Rajji said the Lebanese military “possesses the necessary capabilities to fulfil” its mission, in a post on X Monday.
“Our ambition is that of a Lebanon freed from all occupation and all illegal weapons; a Lebanon rebuilt, prosperous, and democratic, which lives in peace with its neighbors as well as with the rest of the world,” he wrote on X.
Rajji said Hezbollah is “Lebanese in name but Iranian in essence”.
“As long as it is not disarmed, any distinction between its military branch and its political branch is futile,” he added.
The dispute between Rajji and Hezbollah centers on the Lebanese government's active plan to completely disarm Hezbollah, dismantle its military structure, and establish an absolute state monopoly on weapons. Rajji has completely dismissed any separation between Hezbollah's political and military entities, explicitly calling the entire movement an "illegal organization."
