00:00What have become almost daily airstrikes on Lebanon by Israel.
00:03President Joseph Aoun has today been condemning Israel for these strikes on his country.
00:10But isn't there an argument that Israel is actually helping him to do the job
00:15that the Trump administration has asked him to do, namely disarming Hezbollah?
00:19Absolutely. I mean, the Lebanese government has taken its own course
00:24in terms of disarming all non-state armed groups in the country.
00:30It has been taken the decision when President Joseph Aoun announced this
00:38in his inauguration speech for president.
00:41And then the government of Nawaf Salaam decided also that no other armed groups
00:50are allowed beside the Lebanese army.
00:52So there has been a government consensus to disarm all groups
00:56and maintain Lebanese government as the sole monopoly of arms in its hands
01:05and its own security forces.
01:09So in that sense, the Lebanese government has taken its own way
01:13to disarm parties, Palestinians and Hezbollah as well.
01:18At the same time, Israel is taking, you know, initiating military pressure against Hezbollah,
01:27bombarding all its military infrastructures, assassinating all its military leadership
01:33and trying to the extent it can to undermine all supply lines coming to Hezbollah,
01:42particularly from Syria.
01:46Along that same pressure on Hezbollah to disarm, there is what is called the mechanism,
01:52which is a committee established after the agreement to end hostilities between Lebanon and Israel
02:00last year, and it meant to lead the efforts to make sure that Hezbollah is not being, you know,
02:11militarizing itself again, nor it is maintaining its activity south of the Litani River
02:18or in other areas in the country.
02:21And this committee is made out of the United States, France, Israel, and the Lebanese government.
02:28And lately, the Lebanese government also included part of that mechanism committee,
02:34a political official, Simon Karam.
02:40So, and this committee is working on disarming Hezbollah.
02:45So, there are many areas or many places where the disarmament of Hezbollah is coming from.
02:53And yet, the party is reluctant to disarm.
02:58It feels that disarmament should be conditioned upon the withdrawal of Israel from the areas it has occupied.
03:07And for Israel to stop its activities, particularly in violations of the end of hostility agreement in 1701,
03:17where Israel continues to attack and assassinate its members.
03:23So, it calls for Israel commitment to withdrawal and to end its hostility for the party to disarm.
03:33That's if it really accepted itself.
03:36But until now, it's reluctant.
03:39It's putting pressure, increasing pressure on the government not to accept Israeli and American
03:44or the Mechanism Committee's conditions and to maintain its operations in the country.
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