Hezbollah Should Wake Up To New Realities – OpEd
US Deputy Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus, recently visited Lebanon. During an interview with the LBCI news outlet, Ortagus stressed the importance of disarming Hezbollah. This statement from a senior US diplomat has sparked a new debate about the disarmament of Hezbollah, which has been demanded for a long time.
In January this year, the Lebanese parliament elected a new president, former army chief Joseph Aoun. New President in his inaugural speech, clearly said that he wanted the state to have the monopoly of force. He wanted the state to be the one with the weapons. It should be remembered that Hezbollah was the only Lebanese armed group that refused to surrender its weapons following a 1975-1990 civil war, arguing that its arms were necessary to fight against occupying Israeli troops in south Lebanon.
The international community, through the UN Security Council, has demanded multiple times that Hezbollah should disarm. Instead, Hezbollah has continually ignored these demands. They ignored UN Resolution 1701, which called for a zone free of armed personnel besides the army of Lebanon. They ignored UN Resolution 1559 and the Lebanese Taif Agreement, which ended the Lebanese Civil War and called for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias. Hezbollah in........
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