Last month, on august 7th, he Lebanese government, in its cabinet meeting, voted in favor of disarming all non-state actors inside Lebanon and requiring their weapons to be handed over to the government.
On September 5th, the Lebanese Army forwarded a plan to the government outlining how the disarmament of non-state actors should proceed. The government approved the action plan set by the LAF, with the stated intention that all non-state actors hand over their weapons by December 2025, or that the process be “fully” completed by then.
This legislation specifically targets all non-state actors in the country, including the Iran-aligned and backed Hezbollah movement, which is based in southern Beirut and southern Lebanon, as well as the Fatah (PLO) movement, which controls many Palestinian camps within Lebanon.
Hezbollah, as a political party, and its ally, the Amal Party, opposed the decision and walked out of the vote in protest.
Today, PLO elements from the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon and the al-Baddawi camp in Tripoli delivered eight trucks filled with weapons, marking the first voluntary disarmament by a non-state actor to the LAF.
The handed-over weapons included mortar shells, heavy machine guns, mines, rockets, several hundred kilograms of plastic explosives, and ammunition.
Experts and political commentators from the Middle East and beyond have stated that the risk of a new civil war in Lebanon is heightened by such proactive policies from the Lebanese government. Hezbollah has repeatedly declared in recent months that it will never willingly disarm or hand over its weapons to the government. The PLO, however, remained silent until now, but appears to have agreed to the policy.
How the vast arsenal of Hezbollah will be disarmed without provoking conflict remains unclear, as the LAF’s plan has not been made public.
Iran has also spoke out against the disarmement of Hezbollah, while Israel and the United States welcomed it, most countries did not comment on the internal affairs of Lebanon.