BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun called on Hezbollah and other political parties on Thursday to hand over their weapons to the army, a move the powerful militant group is resisting as Washington ramps up pressures for it to remove its arsenal.
“It is the duty of all political parties… to seize this historic opportunity without hesitation and push for the exclusivity of weapons in the hands of the army and security forces and no one else,” Aoun said in a televised speech in the defence ministry’s headquarters.
Hezbollah, which emerged badly damaged from its war with Israel last year, has said calls for the Iran-aligned group to disarm only serve Israel.
“Those who call for submitting arms practically demand submitting them to Israel … We will not submit to Israel,” the group’s chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Wednesday.
The U.S. has been pushing Lebanon to issue a formal cabinet decision committing to disarm Hezbollah before talks can resume on a halt to Israeli military operations in the country, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Aoun said a proposal to Washington that will be presented to the cabinet next week stated that Israel should stop its attacks on Lebanon and withdraw from the posts it occupies in the south of the country, along with Hezbollah handing over its weaponry to the Lebanese army.
The proposal seeks to secure $1 billion annually for 10 years to support the army and the security forces and includes plans for an international conference to take place later in the year to support reconstruction efforts in Lebanon.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut, Nayera Abdallah and Tala Ramadan in Dubai; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Ros Russell)
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