U.S. envoy receives the Lebanese government’s response to Hezbollah disarmament proposal

BEIRUT (AP) — A U.S. envoy said Monday he was satisfied with the Lebanese government’s response to a proposal to disarm the militant Hezbollah group, adding that Washington is ready to help the small crisis-hit nation emerge from its long-running political and economic crisis.

The U.S. envoy to Lebanon, Tom Barrack, spoke to journalists after meeting President Joseph Aoun, saying he will study the government’s seven-page response. Barrack said the American and Lebanese sides are committed “to get a resolution.”

“What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time and a very complicated manner,” Barrack said during his 20-minute news conference at the presidential palace southeast of Beirut.

His meetings in Lebanon came amid fears that Hezbollah’s refusal to immediately disarm would renew war between Israel after a shaky ceasefire agreement went into effect in November.

Last month, Barrack gave Lebanese officials a proposal that aims to disarm Hezbollah and move on with some economic reforms to try get Lebanon out of its nearly 6-year economic crisis, the worst in its modern history. The economic meltdown is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon’s political class.

Barrack said Lebanon should change in the same way as Syria has following the fall in December of Syrian President Bashar Assad,who was replaced by a new leadership that is moving ahead with major economic reforms.

Barrack said President Donald Trump and the U.S. are ready to help Lebanon change and “if you don’t want change, it’s no problem.” The rest of the region is moving at high speed,” he said.

Hezbollah’s weapons have been one of the principal sticking points since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation. The two sides fought a destructive war in 2006 that ended in a draw.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began a day after the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel and intensified in September, leaving the Iran-backed group badly bruised and much of its political and military leadership dead.

Since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect in November, Hezbollah has almost ended all its military presence along the border with Israel, which is insisting that the group disarms all over Lebanon. Aoun said Sunday that the number of Lebanese troops along the border with Israel will increase to 10,000, adding that only Lebanese soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers will be armed on the Lebanese side of the border.

On Sunday night, hours before Barrack arrived in Beirut, Israel’s air force carried out strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, wounding nine people, according to state media. The Israeli army said the airstrikes hit Hezbollah’s infrastructure, arms depots and missile launchers.

Earlier Sunday, Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem reiterated the militant group’s refusal to lay down its weapons before Israel withdraws from all of southern Lebanon and stops its airstrikes.

The Hezbollah-Israel war left over 4,000 people dead in Lebanon and caused destruction estimated at $11 billion. In Israel, 127 people, including 80 soldiers, were killed during the war.

Since the November ceasefire, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on different parts of Lebanon, killing about 250 people and injuring over 600. Israel is also still holding five strategic posts inside Lebanon that it refused to withdraw from earlier this year.