Washington Must Ensure Beirut Acts on Its Promise To Disarm Hezbollah

Hezbollah, despite its assurances to Lebanese officials, launched a barrage of rockets and drones at Israel on the morning of March 2, making Lebanon an unwilling party to the war with Iran.

In response, the cabinet of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the terror group’s actions and “immediately proscribe[d] all of Hezbollah’s military and security activities, considering them heretofore illegal.” Salam also demanded that Hezbollah immediately surrender its arms and directed the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to “immediately and firmly” advance plans to disarm Hezbollah “north of the Litani River.”

It is long past time to task the LAF with disarming Hezbollah, yet it remains to be seen whether any action will follow given Beirut’s long history of hollow promises.

Hezbollah Reopens the Lebanese Front To Serve Iranian Interests

Hezbollah attacked Israel with dozens of projectiles and drones. The group claimed responsibility for the attack an hour later, describing it as retaliation for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but also framing it as a “legitimate act of self-defense” in response to ongoing Israeli operations in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces responded with widespread attacks in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah assets, personnel, and allies throughout the country.

Lebanon’s Cabinet and Justice Minister Adel Nassar authorized the arrest of the perpetrators, while the LAF was reportedly going to deploy to the launch site. So far, however, no arrests have been made, and the LAF’s latest action has been to prohibit private citizens from recording video with their drones.

A Test of Beirut’s Sincerity

For Beirut to prove its seriousness, the Cabinet decision should be enshrined in a law that proscribes all militias as criminal or terrorist entities and lists Hezbollah by name. Such a law would embody the plain meaning of Lebanon’s quasi-constitutional 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended the country’s civil war and required the disarmament of all militias.

For the past year, the Salam government has tiptoed around disarming Hezbollah. First, Beirut shifted from seeking the group’s total disarmament by the end of 2025 to only doing so in the South Litani Area (SLA). Then, the government reframed its objectives from stripping Hezbollah of its arsenal to merely “containing” its weapons. It also took Lebanon more than a year to complete its promised deployment of soldiers to restrain the group’s activities in the SLA. But the combination of delays and half-measures made even this deployment ultimately ineffective, allowing the group to survive, regenerate, and now pull Lebanon into another war.

The cabinet’s statement must be coupled with the LAF’s publicly demonstrable seizure of Hezbollah’s remaining installations, confiscation of its arms, and arrest of any Hezbollah operatives unwilling to cooperate, across all of Lebanon. By definition, this includes in the SLA, where evidence from ongoing Israeli operations suggests Hezbollah is continuing to function and regenerate, despite the LAF’s January declaration that it had taken operational control.

U.S. May Have To Reassess Support if Action Is Not Taken

The United States has fostered close ties with the LAF for years, distributing $3 billion of military assistance to the LAF since 2006. While the Trump administration froze most foreign aid at the start of his second term, in March 2025, it made an exception for $95 million for the LAF, and the Pentagon has continued combined military exercises with Beirut.

Though the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act calls for enhancing the security partnership with Lebanon, it also calls for considering suspending assistance if the LAF does not uphold its promises to disarm Hezbollah, with a June 30 deadline on the determination. The Iran war has changed the calculus, and Washington would be wise not to wait until June 30. For two decades, Beirut has taken for granted that lip service alone would ensure that U.S. aid keeps flowing. It is time to show otherwise.

David Daoud is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs, and Justin Leopold-Cohen is a senior research analyst with the Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP) at FDD. For more analysis from David, Justin, and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow David on X @DavidADaoud and Justin at @jleopoldcohen. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.