BEIRUT: Lebanese political factions reached a compromise on Hezbollah’s arsenal, the information minister said Friday, releasing a vaguely worded draft statement that implies the militant group can keep its weapons.
The position paper must now be approved by Parliament, whose vote will decide whether to accept a unity government that includes Hezbollah. The new Cabinet was formed after Hezbollah gunmen routed armed supporters of the previous pro-Western administration earlier this year.
Hezbollah’s arms have long been a point of dispute, with many legislators in the Western-backed majority in Parliament wanting to disarm the group. Hezbollah rejects the demand, and it will hold veto power in the new government. The draft statement announced by Information Minister Tarek Mitri is deliberately vague, saying only that the committee agreed “on the right of Lebanon’s people, the army and the resistance to liberate all its territories.”
“Resistance” is Lebanon’s jargon for Hezbollah, which is admired by many in Lebanon for its stand against Israel. “All territories” alludes to Lebanon’s territorial claim on the Shebaa Farms area that Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast War.
After Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war, militias were ordered dissolved, but Hezbollah fighters were allowed to keep their weapons because they were considered a resistance group fighting Israeli troops that occupied part of southern Lebanon until 2000.
