Lebanon leaders consider response to delicate US demands on disarming Hezbollah

Lebanese officials held meetings over the weekend to decide how to respond to US pressure to disarm Hezbollah and normalise relations with Israel.

US envoy Tom Barrack earlier this month presented a proposal to Lebanese leaders to end the country's long-running conflict with Israel.

Among the Trump administration's demands are the complete disarmament of Hezbollah, economic reforms, and closer ties between Lebanon and Syria, Lebanese officials told Al Araby Al Jadeed, the Arabic sister site of The New Arab.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, President Joseph Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri are holding consultations to decide on a unified position.

Barrack is expected to return to Beirut in July when the government will give its response.

The sources said that the government will condition the disarmament of Hezbollah on Israel withdrawing from Lebanese territory captured during the war last year.

The Israeli military continues to occupy five strategic hilltops inside Lebanon and has refused to hand them over to the Lebanese military, which has gradually deployed south of the Litani River since the war ended in November.

Hezbollah is yet to provide an official response to the US proposal but has said it would need guarantees that Israel will stop attacking it if it agrees to surrender its weapons, according to Al-Araby-Al Jadeed.

There are fears in Beirut that Israel could escalate its attacks in Lebanon in a bid to pressure the government to agree to Barrack's framework.

Two people were killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday, which the Israeli military said targeted a Hezbollah commander.

Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in violation of a ceasefire signed in November, killing more than 200 people and injuring hundreds of others.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem condemned Saturday's airstrike and said that Israel's "ongoing aggression…must not be allowed to continue".

Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and envoy to Syria, expressed optimism over the weekend that Lebanon and Syria will both sign peace deals with Israel and formally enter the Abraham Accords, a normalisation agreement signed between Israel and the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, and Sudan in 2020.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced on Monday that his government is interested in establishing peace with Lebanon and Syria.

"We have an interest in adding countries – Syria and Lebanon, our neighbours – to the circle of peace and normalisation while safeguarding Israel's essential and security interests," he told reporters in Jerusalem.

However, he also said Israel will continue to occupy the Golan Heights, Syrian land that Israeli forces seized in 1967.

A low-level conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began on 8 October 2023, one day after the Gaza War began with Hamas's surprise attack against Israel.

Israel dramatically escalated the conflict into a full-scale war in September 2024, assassinating senior Hezbollah leaders and beginning an intense bombardment of southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and other areas.