00:00Now, the war in Iran has spread to Lebanon, where Israel has vowed to root out the Iran-back Shia
00:05militia Hezbollah. Thousands of people are on the move, mostly from South Lebanon, from a war that
00:10has already caused almost 600 deaths in the country. In a last-ditch effort to stop the
00:16violence, the Lebanese government asked for direct talks with Israel through a US intermediary. So
00:21far, the US and Israel have rebuffed the proposal, albeit not officially saying the government should
00:26focus on disarming Hezbollah. Euronews' senior editor and Middle East expert Sophie Claude
00:31spoke to Lebanon's energy minister, Joe Sadi. Here's what he had to say.
00:35This was indeed a very courageous initiative by our president. But as of this time, I am not aware of
00:47any response yet. But don't you think it's a little too late as per the 2024 ceasefire agreement between
00:55Lebanon and Israel? The Lebanese government was supposed to disarm Hezbollah.
01:00This hasn't happened. And we've seen now what's happening.
01:03Obviously, I think everybody would wish that the implementation of this would happen much
01:11quicker. But this has to do on one side with the availability of the capabilities of the Lebanese army.
01:22It has to do with also the behavior of Israel during that whole period.
01:31But does the army have even the capabilities of disarming Hezbollah, which is a state within
01:36the states?
01:37Based on what the... I'm not a military expert. Based on what the army says, they do not have all
01:43the
01:43capabilities they need to do this by their own account, which is why, if you're in anger,
01:52there was a plan to do it in multiple phases.
01:55Prime Minister Netanyahu has been very clear in his will to completely root out Hezbollah.
02:00And I may remind our viewers that Hezbollah is not only a military faction, it's also a political
02:07and social movement that is deeply rooted in Lebanon. Do you think that Israel can root out Hezbollah?
02:13The military side of Hezbollah has now been declared illegal by our government.
02:19The political and the prime minister did say that if Hezbollah was to date purely as a political
02:29party, then he would have no problem with it.
02:35But I understand that Lebanese authorities can live with Hezbollah being a political social
02:42movement. But Israel is increasingly showing signs that it cannot.
02:46And Hezbollah is an ideology. How can you defeat an ideology?
02:50The way forward is to show what the state can do, deliver, you know, basic goods and
02:57services, you know, on all fronts, health, social, education, etc. But for the state to
03:06be able to deliver this, it needs financial, it needs political willingness, which I think
03:11it has, but it also needs financial means. And unfortunately, the Hezbollah dragging us
03:17again back into the war, it makes the availability of international funding that much more difficult
03:26and distant in time.
03:29Do you think if the Iranian regime was completely defeated, that would significantly weaken Hezbollah
03:35as a movement, as an ideology, as a popular movement in Lebanon?
03:39The lifeline, there's a financial lifeline for Hezbollah coming from Iran, they've said it
03:44so publicly, there is a military one, probably that has severely decreased since the regime
03:50change in Syria, but certainly on the financial front as well. And so any reduction, any major
04:00reduction, and both on the military side and the financial side, in terms of lifeline to
04:06Hezbollah certainly would weaken it.
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