Hezbollah vows to keep arms, says Lebanon’s disarmament plan serves Israel

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group on Friday vowed not to disarm, saying last week’s decision by the national government to remove the Iran-backed group’s weapons by the end of the year serves Israel’s interests.

Naim Kassem said the government’s decision to remove “the defensive weapons of the resistance, its people and Lebanon during an aggression” facilitates the killing of “resistance fighters and their families and evict them from their land and homes.”

He said the government should have instead “spread its authority and evicted Israel from Lebanon.” Speaking in a televised speech to mark a Shiite religious event, he added “the government is serving the Israeli project.”

Kassem added if the ongoing crisis leads to an internal conflict, the government is to blame. He noted that Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, the Amal movement, did not to ask their supporters to protest in the streets to give way for more discussions. The Amal movement was one of the main armed groups in Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and is now a powerful political party led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

But, he said if a decision is taken to protest in the streets, protesters “will be all over Lebanon and head to the U.S. embassy.” He did not elaborate.

Hezbollah’s weapons have been a major dividing point in Lebanon with some groups that are opposed to Hezbollah saying only the state should be allowed to have arms.

The Lebanese government voted last week for a U.S.-backed plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year and implement a ceasefire with Israel.

The small Mediterranean country has been under international pressure to get Hezbollah to lay down its arms since the 14-month war with Israel that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November.

However, the Hezbollah leader said his group will only discuss a national defense strategy over its weapons once Israel withdraws from Lebanon and stops its almost daily airstrikes that have killed scores of Hezbollah members since the war’s end.

“The resistance will not hand over its weapons as the aggression continues and occupation remains,” Kassem said, adding that the group will fight a long battle if needed.

The Israel-Hezbollah war weakened the Iran-backed group and left much of its military and political leadership dead. The war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced over 1 million and caused destruction that the World Bank said will cost $11 billion in reconstruction.

After the war ended, Israeli forces stayed in five overlooking locations inside Lebanon.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its military capabilities. Israel’s military has said the five locations in Lebanon provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel, where about 60,000 Israelis were displaced during the war.