Lebanon’s army is racing to clear Hezbollah’s arms in the south while carefully navigating a fraught political and security terrain before proceeding nationwide.
Lebanon’s army has demolished so many arms caches belonging to Hezbollah that it has run out of explosives, as it accelerates operations to disarm the Shi’ite militia in the country’s south under a ceasefire deal with Israel.
The institution, once unable to challenge Hezbollah’s dominance, now expects to finish its sweep of the south by year-end, though progress elsewhere remains uncertain. The army has discovered nine new weapons caches in September and sealed dozens of tunnels used by Hezbollah, according to security sources.
However, the military is proceeding cautiously in other regions of the country to avoid inflaming tensions with Hezbollah’s powerful Shi’ite community. “The rest – that depends on a political settlement, which we don’t yet have,” said a Lebanese official close to the group. Hezbollah insists its disarmament obligations apply only to the south and not to weapons elsewhere in Lebanon.
The army’s efforts are further complicated by its reliance on Israeli intelligence, risks from Israeli strikes and occupation of border hilltops, and the need for a national consensus on how to handle Hezbollah’s arsenal beyond the south.