Lebanon sets four months for second phase of Hezbollah disarmament

Announcement comes as Hezbollah rejects calls to dismantle its arsenals north of the Litani River, describing pressure to do so as a ‘grave sin’.

Lebanon’s government has said that its military will need at least four months to complete the second phase of its plan to dismantle Hezbollah’s arsenals in the country’s south.

The announcement by Minister of Information Paul Morcos on Monday comes amid growing pressure from the United States and Israel for Hezbollah to disarm, including near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

The bombings come despite Israel agreeing to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024 to end more than a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah.

The conflict left the Lebanese armed group badly weakened, with much of its leadership killed.

Under the ceasefire deal, Lebanon’s government committed to dismantling Hezbollah’s arsenal and tasked its military with drawing up a plan to do so.

The military said last month that it had completed the first phase of the five-stage plan, covering the area between the Litani River and the country’s southern border with Israel.

The second phase concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, about 40km (25 miles) south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Morcos, Lebanon’s information minister, told a news conference after a cabinet session that the government “took note of the army leadership’s presentation” on the second stage of the plan.

“There is a timeframe of four months, extendable depending on available capabilities, Israeli attacks and hindrances on the ground,” he said.

Hezbollah, which has dismissed efforts to disarm it as a US-Israeli plan, has rejected calls to surrender weapons north of the Litani River, saying it understands the ceasefire agreement to apply “exclusively south” of the waterway.

Before the cabinet session on Monday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said that “wh