Iran official says Hezbollah disarmament plan 'will never be implemented'

Brig. Gen. Iraj Masjedi, the assistant commander of Iran’s Quds Force for coordination affairs, announced Monday that “the Hezbollah disarmament plan in Lebanon is an American-Zionist plan that will never be implemented.”

Recent and similar statements by the same official and by other Iranian officials had prompted Lebanese authorities to strongly condemn “interference” in Lebanon’s domestic affairs.

“Neither the Lebanese people nor the Hezbollah force will accept this plan and it will never materialize,” Masjedi stressed on Monday.

“The resistance’s arms are the arms of the Lebanese people to defend this land against the Zionist entity’s aggression,” the Iranian official added.

The Lebanese government had on August 5 tasked the army with preparing a plan for the removal of weapons and presenting it to Cabinet prior to August 31, with an ultimate goal of completing the disarmament plan by year end.

Hezbollah has rejected the government’s decisions and said it will deal with them as if they do not exist.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he welcomes the Lebanese cabinet's "momentous decision," adding that if Lebanon takes the necessary steps to disarm Hezbollah, then Israel will respond with reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction of the Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon.

Since the Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss its disarmament until Israel withdraws from five hills it controls inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes that have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members.

Lebanon is under U.S. pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened, with many of its political and military leaders dead.