Lebanon’s failure to disarm Hezbollah keeps doing greater damage

Excerpt

To end its devastating war with Israel, Lebanon pledged to disarm Hezbollah under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. After signing the Cessation of Hostilities in November 2024, Beirut stalled for 15 months, until Hezbollah fired six rockets at Israel on Mar. 1. The Lebanese cabinet then banned Hezbollah’s military activity, but it was too late: Israel resumed operations against the pro-Iran militia. Reasons for Lebanon’s failure include weak security forces, no real political will, and endless excuses.

The Lebanese Armed Forces teeter on the brink of collapse. Qatar funds their payroll and the U.S. supplies their rudimentary equipment, but soldiers often have to moonlight as nightclub bouncers and Uber drivers to survive.

Their logistics verge on the farcical: troops in the field frequently beg civilians for drinking water or scraps of food, knocking on doors wherever they deploy. Since the 1991 end of Lebanon’s civil war, first the Assad regime and later Hezbollah itself barred the Lebanese military’s intelligence branch from gathering any information on the pro-Iran militia.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the author of “The Arab Case for Israel” and a research fellow at The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.