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Disarming Hizballah?
(Los Angeles Times) Tyler Marshall and Sonni Efron - Hizballah, which maintains the largest military contingent in the country next to the Lebanese army, is also a formidable political force. "There's not a lot of talk about disarming Hizballah because no one can do it," a senior U.S. official said. Those familiar with Lebanese politics suggest that Hizballah could win more than 20% of the vote in a free election and claim many more than the 12 seats it currently holds in Lebanon's 128-seat parliament. Rather than provoke a potentially bloody confrontation to disarm Hizballah, administration officials say that a new, more open political environment inside Lebanon could generate its own disarmament pressures. With the Israelis gone from southern Lebanon, new Palestinian leaders calling for an end to violence against Israel, and Lebanon's historically oppressed Shiite minority no longer in need of protection, the militant organization would be hard-pressed to justify its large militia, administration officials argue. "There are a lot of 'ifs' and a lot of things have to fall together, but the reality is that the reasons for their existence are being stripped away," a U.S. official said.