Spotlight
Iran's top security chief vowed in Lebanon on Wednesday that his government would continue to provide support, after the Lebanese government ordered the army to devise a plan to disarm Tehran-backed Hezbollah.
Ali Larijani's trip to Lebanon comes after Iran expressed opposition to a government plan to disarm Hezbollah, which before a war with Israel last year was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil stressed Tuesday that “any arms outside the state are illegitimate,” adding that “the Movement adopts a clear stance on the inevitability of restricting arms and their command to the state alone without any partnership or interference.”

President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday stressed that the state will carry on with its latest decision on arms monopolization.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the resignation of the ministers of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement is out of the question, noting that “the sensitivity of the extraordinary situations that Lebanon is going through requires all parties to show the highest levels of responsibility and prudence.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday said the Lebanese government should “seriously think of calling for Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council urgent sessions to discuss the issue of the Iranian threat to Lebanon,” in the wake of a flurry of stances by Iranian officials over the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament.

The deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, Mahmoud Qmati, said Monday that “the Lebanese government will not be able to remove Hezbollah’s arms.”

Hezbollah supporters have attacked Finance Minister Yassine Jaber of the Amal Movement on social media for saying the monopoly of arms in the hand of the state is one of the current priorities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has noted that what is currently happening in Lebanon is due to Israel’s war on Hezbollah last year.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday toured several majority-Christian border towns in south Lebanon, where he called for peace rather than war.

The head of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, has warned that surrendering the group’s weapons would be equivalent to “surrendering one’s honor.”
