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Disarming Hizbullah: Much Talk, Little Action

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Ehud Yaari - Lebanese President Gen. Joseph Aoun says in closed-door meetings that he has no intention whatsoever of sending his military to clash with Hizbullah. He insists that implementing the Lebanese government's agreement to disarm Hizbullah must be preceded by dialogue and solid understandings. The government now has conveyed to the U.S. that collection of arms cannot be completed by the end of the year, as initially promised. At the same time, Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah's pale successor, Naim Qassem, vows to refuse handing over Hizbullah's still impressive arsenal, repeatedly threatening to fight the Lebanese army and warning of civil war. President Aoun knows perfectly well that the military chief of staff who replaced him in March, Gen. Rodolphe Haykal, was Hizbullah's preferred candidate. On Aug. 9, when a Lebanese army unit arrived at a Hizbullah bunker in south Lebanon, searching for rockets, Hizbullah operatives detonated a remotely-controlled bomb, killing six U.S.-trained Lebanese demolition experts and wounding others. Israel should not agree to any gesture or concession, as long as the promises of disarmament are not translated into significant actions. Hizbullah has been terribly weakened and has lost nearly all of its local allies as a result of launching a war against Israel. But it insists on retaining all of its remaining military capabilities. The writer is chief Middle East commentator of Israel's Channel 12 and an international fellow of the Washington Institute.
2025-08-31 00:00:00
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