LEBANON SAYS 80% OF WEAPONS IN SOUTH UNDER STATE CONTROL

Thu 29 May 2025:

The Lebanese government has managed to bring 80% of weapons in southern Lebanon under its control, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said.

“All over the Lebanese territory, the state should have a monopoly on arms,” Salam said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

He said his government has achieved 80% of its disarmament goal in the country’s south.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has earlier vowed to place all weapons under state control in 2025.

International pressure has been increasing on Lebanon to disarm the Hezbollah group since the November ceasefire agreement that ended more than a year of cross-border clashes with Israel.

Aoun said on Monday that joint Lebanese-Palestinian committees have been formed to address the issue of Palestinian weapons in Lebanon’s refugee camps.

Despite the ceasefire, Lebanese authorities have reported nearly 3,000 Israeli violations of the agreement, including the deaths of over 200 victims and injuries to at least 500 others since last November.

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Israeli army rotates forces along Lebanon border

The Israeli army says its reserve Division 146 is concluding its deployment and handing over operations to Division 91, the so-called Galilee Division.

In a statement, the military said Division 146 has been involved in both cross-border attacks and the ground invasion into southern Lebanon. The army claimed it had worked to “reshape the security reality” along the border region.

Southern Lebanon continues to suffer from sporadic Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire agreed in November last year between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended 14 months of war.

As part of the deal, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle military infrastructure between that demarcation line and Lebanon’s border with Israel. For its part, Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept soldiers at five points in southern Lebanon.

The truce was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese soldiers and UN peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in southern Lebanon.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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