Hezbollah MP says group will not sign disarmament decision

As cabinet convened Tuesday to discuss a thorny and controversial plan to disarm Hezbollah under heavy U.S. pressure, Hezbollah and its ally Amal were reportedly trying to postpone the discussion after overnight protests that Hezbollah said were "spontaneous".

Supporters of the group had roamed the streets of the capital and its southern suburbs on motorbikes, in a show of defiance reflecting their rejection of Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Hezbollah MP Ali Al-Moqdad told Russian state-owned news agency Sputnik that Hezbollah will not sign a decision that would end sovereignty and completely erase a large portion of the Lebanese people.

"Is this session necessary for Lebanon, or for the Israelis and Americans?" he asked.

President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have both vowed to disarm Hezbollah. Hezbollah and ally Amal MPs gave twice their confidence to Salam's government and backed President Aoun in a second round of voting last January.

Al-Moqdad said the presidential inaugural speech mentioned the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories in south Lebanon and the halt to Israeli attacks on Lebanon before Hezbollah's disarmament.

"Solving domestic crises should be done between the Lebanese without any external pressure," he added.

Under a ceasefire deal reached in late November, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river and Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five locations in south Lebanon that it deems strategic.

Whether Hezbollah must first disarm or Israel must first withdraw remains a chicken and egg situation.

Israel has kept up regular raids on Lebanon since the truce, mostly saying it is striking Hezbollah targets, and has threatened to keep doing so until the group has been disarmed.

Hezbollah has demanded that reconstruction of areas destroyed during the war begin, and that Israel stop its attacks, withdraw from five areas it occupies and release Lebanese prisoners, before discussing the fate of its weapons, which it considers a matter of domestic defense strategy.