Residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut wave Hezbollah flags and hold up portraits of its former leader Hassan Nasrallah on Nov. 27, 2024, a few hours after the announcement of a cease-fire with Israel. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L’Orient-Le Jour)
The United States is "ready to discuss serious measures to disarm Hezbollah," a U.S. State Department official told Al Arabiya, according to remarks the Saudi broadcaster published on social media Sunday.
Citing an "American source," Al Arabiya also reported that "Hezbollah generates $40 million per month through smuggling and currency counterfeiting, and receives funds from the Lebanese state budget," without providing further details.
"According to this source, Lebanon has informed Washington of its banking sector reforms and the steps taken to target the party's networks (...) whose financing would be hampered by dismantling drug trafficking networks," Al Arabiya added.
Hezbollah reportedly received $200 million from Iran to help displaced Lebanese during this year's war with Israel, according to information Reuters published Wednesday. The group also faces accusations of involvement in the captagon trade, which involves a synthetic drug trafficked across the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Under the Nov. 27, 2024, cease-fire agreement, which ended more than a year of war between Israel and Hezbollah, the group's military arsenal was supposed to be dismantled. The process, which had unfolded over several months in southern Lebanon, stalled when Hezbollah entered a new war with Israel on March 2, 2026, after Israel and the United States launched a war on Iran.
7 p.m. recap: Houthis strike Riyadh airport again; Yemeni forces claim Bab al-Mandeb gains; Abbas postpones Palestinian polls