Lebanese FM: Iran Holds the Key to Hezbollah Disarmament as Ceasefire Tensions Mount

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji said Iran—not Beirut—will ultimately decide whether Hezbollah surrenders its weapons, warning that the group is actively rebuilding its capabilities despite the terms of the November 2024 ceasefire with Israel. His remarks, made in an interview with Saudi outlet Al Arabiya and published Saturday, highlight growing friction inside Lebanon as international pressure mounts to dismantle the Iran-backed militia’s military structure.

Rajji confirmed he had raised the disarmament issue directly with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, describing the move as a central priority for the Lebanese government as it seeks to uphold a fragile calm. The ceasefire agreement required Hezbollah to disarm and allow the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to fully deploy across the country—conditions that remain unmet more than a year after the war.

“Hezbollah won’t hand over its weapons without an Iranian decision,” Rajji said, adding that the group is now focused on “preserving itself” and “regaining power” after sustaining severe damage during its year-long conflict with Israel. He said Hezbollah has begun “rebuilding itself in many ways,” including financially, and is working to reassert influence internally.

Rajji lamented the group’s refusal to view disarmament as being in Lebanon’s national interest—or even in its own interest as a political party.

“The credibility of the state today depends on the extent to which it extends its authority over all Lebanese territory,” he said, insisting that only the state’s legitimate security forces should possess weapons.

He stressed that the demand to dismantle Hezbollah’s military structure is “a Lebanese demand, regardless of the international demand,” amid U.S. and Israeli insistence that Beirut take concrete steps toward disarmament.

Rajji said the Lebanese Armed Forces are determined to seize all Hezbollah weapons in southern Lebanon by the end of the year before expanding operations further north in early 2026. But Hezbollah’s leadership has continued to provoke the government, he said, pointing to statements by deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem about rearming.

The comments came just one day after Qassem accused the government of making a “free concession” to Israel by sending a civilian, rather than a military officer, to attend the first direct Israel-Lebanon talks in decades. Held at UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura under the “Cessation of Hostilities Implementation Mechanism,” the meeting included U.S., French, UN, Israeli, and Lebanese representatives.

Israel sent National Security Council Deputy Director for Foreign Policy Uri Resnick, while Lebanon was represented by former ambassador to Washington Simon Karam. Rajji defended the decision to send a civilian, expressing hope it would help “spare Lebanon a large-scale military operation by Israel.”

Israeli and U.S. officials have warned that without tangible progress on disarming Hezbollah, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) could launch a major operation.

Israeli officials described the Naqoura meeting as “productive,” saying both sides agreed to present proposals on cross-border economic cooperation—including agriculture, technology, transportation, and infrastructure—at the follow-up meeting.

Lebanon’s government quickly distanced itself from that interpretation. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam rejected the idea of economic cooperation before normalization, which Beirut has long conditioned on the creation of a Palestinian state.

Rajji reiterated that Lebanon is “very far” from signing a peace deal with Israel, and that Karam’s mandate covers only military issues, including ending Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon and securing an IDF withdrawal.

Rajji’s optimism was challenged almost immediately. On Thursday—just one day after the meeting—the IDF launched a wave of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah weapons depots in southern Lebanon.

Israeli officials say the group has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, prompting intensifying Israeli operations. Last month, the IDF carried out a rare strike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s chief of staff.

Under the ceasefire terms, Hezbollah was required to withdraw from southern Lebanon, while Israel had 60 days to vacate its positions. Although the IDF pulled back from most border posts, it maintained five strategic sites, citing Hezbollah’s failure to dismantle its infrastructure.

Since November 2024, the IDF says it has conducted more than 1,200 raids in southern Lebanon—destroying weapons caches, rocket platforms, intelligence-gathering sites, and other military facilities to prevent Hezbollah from restoring operational capability.

Israel’s September 2024 ground military operation aimed to secure the return of some 60,000 residents displaced by months of Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel. The group initiated near-daily fires beginning October 8, 2023—one day after Hamas launched its surprise attack on southern Israel, igniting the Gaza war.

As Lebanon grapples with internal political paralysis and economic collapse, the unresolved question of Hezbollah’s disarmament remains central to whether the ceasefire holds—or whether the region faces another war that could be far more destructive than the last.