BEIRUT, July 07 (Reuters/AFP): A US envoy met Lebanese officials in Beirut on Monday to discuss a proposed plan to disarm Hezbollah, hours after Israel launched new air strikes and a cross-border ground assault.
The Israeli escalation was seen by Lebanese officials and diplomats as an attempt to ratchet up pressure on Hezbollah, whose leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech on Sunday that the group still needed arms to defend Lebanon from Israel.
US envoy Thomas Barrack said Monday he was satisfied by the Lebanese authorities' response to a request to disarm Hezbollah, which was heavily weakened in a recent war with Israel.
"I'm unbelievably satisfied with the response," Barrack, Washington's ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, told a press conference after meeting President Joseph Aoun.
He warned that "the rest of the region is moving at Mach speed, and you will be left behind", noting that "dialogue has started between Syria and Israel, just as the dialogue needs to be reinvented by Lebanon."
Hezbollah emerged badly damaged from a war with Israel last year that eliminated much of the group's leadership, killed thousands of its fighters and left tens of thousands of its supporters displaced from their destroyed homes.
The group has been under pressure in recent months both within Lebanon and from Washington to completely relinquish its weapons. It is weighing shrinking its arsenal, sources told Reuters last week, without disarming in full.
US envoy Thomas Barrack's proposal, delivered to Lebanese officials during his last visit on Jun 19, would see Hezbollah fully disarmed within four months in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli troops occupying several posts in south Lebanon and a halt to Israeli air strikes.
US envoy satisfied with Lebanese response on Hezbollah disarming
FE Team | Published: July 07, 2025 23:21:21
US envoy satisfied with Lebanese response on Hezbollah disarming
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