{"id":12424,"date":"2026-02-17T04:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T04:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=12424"},"modified":"2026-02-17T04:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T04:07:16","slug":"lebanon-sets-four-months-for-second-phase-of-hezbollah-disarmament-hezbollah-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=12424","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon sets four months for second phase of Hezbollah disarmament | Hezbollah News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"article__subhead\"><em>Announcement comes as Hezbollah rejects calls to dismantle its arsenals north of the Litani River, describing pressure to do so as a \u2018grave sin\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><button class=\"article-listen-container\" aria-labelledby=\"listen-text listen-duration\" data-testid=\"listen-to-article-button\"><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"article-listen-container__text\" data-testid=\"listen-to-article-text\">Listen to this article<\/span><span aria-hidden=\"true\">\u00a0|\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"article-listen-container__duration\">3 mins<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/button><button tabindex=\"0\" class=\"tooltip-accessible_trigger\"><svg class=\"icon icon--info icon--main-grey-dark icon--16 listen-to-article-tooltip__icon\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\"><title>info<\/title><path class=\"icon-main-color\" d=\"M12 0a12 12 0 1 0 0 24 12 12 0 0 0 0-24Zm-.226 3.225a2.039 2.039 0 0 1 2.155 1.924v.193a1.998 1.998 0 0 1-2.155 2.149 2.029 2.029 0 0 1-2.146-2.15 2.039 2.039 0 0 1 1.955-2.122h.193l-.002.006Zm3.227 15.525a.75.75 0 0 1-.752.75H9.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.75h.748V12h-.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.751h3a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.752v6.75h.75a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.749L15 18.75Z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Lebanon\u2019s government has said that its military will need at least four months to complete the second phase of its plan to dismantle Hezbollah\u2019s arsenals in the country\u2019s south.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement by Minister of Information Paul Morcos on Monday comes amid growing pressure from the United States and Israel for Hezbollah to disarm, including near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon.<\/p>\n<section class=\"more-on\">\n<h2 class=\"more-on__heading\">Recommended Stories<!-- --> <\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">list of 4 items<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The bombings come despite Israel agreeing to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024 to end more than a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah.<\/p>\n<p>The conflict left the Lebanese armed group badly weakened, with much of its leadership killed.<\/p>\n<p>Under the ceasefire deal, Lebanon\u2019s government committed to dismantling Hezbollah\u2019s arsenal and tasked its military with drawing up a plan to do so.<\/p>\n<p>The military said last month that it had completed the first phase of the five-stage plan, covering the area between the Litani River and the country\u2019s southern border with Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The second phase concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, about 40km (25 miles) south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.<\/p>\n<p>Morcos, Lebanon\u2019s information minister, told a news conference after a cabinet session that the government \u201ctook note of the army leadership\u2019s presentation\u201d on the second stage of the plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a timeframe of four months, extendable depending on available capabilities, Israeli attacks and hindrances on the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hezbollah, which has dismissed efforts to disarm it as a US-Israeli plan, has rejected calls to surrender weapons north of the Litani River, saying it understands the ceasefire agreement to apply \u201cexclusively south\u201d of the waterway.<\/p>\n<p>Before the cabinet session on Monday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said that \u201cwhat the Lebanese government is doing in focusing on disarmament is a grave sin, because this issue serves the goals of the Israeli aggression\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStop all action to restrict weapons,\u201d he added in a televised address, saying the government\u2019s \u201csuccessive concessions\u201d were partly to blame for Israel\u2019s persistent attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Qassem\u2019s comments came as the Israeli military launched new raids on southern Lebanon, striking a bus in the town of Hanine and a car in the town of Talloussah, killing at least two people.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli military confirmed the attack on Talloussah, saying it had targeted a Hezbollah fighter who was trying to rebuild the group\u2019s infrastructure in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p>Israel has previously criticised the Lebanese military\u2019s progress on disarming Hezbollah as insufficient.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the regular strikes, it also continues to occupy five areas in Lebanese territory, blocking the reconstruction of destroyed border villages and preventing tens of thousands of displaced people from returning to their homes.<\/p>\n<p>According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli forces have killed more than 370 people since the ceasefire, while the United Nations said Israel has\u00a0launched more than 10,000 air and ground attacks in the year since it agreed to halt hostilities.<\/p>\n<p>Lebanon\u00a0filed a complaint\u00a0with the UN last month about the repeated Israeli violations, urging the UN Security Council to push Israel to end its attacks and fully withdraw from the country.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint said Israel violated Lebanon\u2019s sovereignty at least 2,036 times in the last three months of 2025 alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Announcement comes as Hezbollah rejects calls to dismantle its arsenals north of the Litani River, describing pressure to do so as a \u2018grave sin\u2019. Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a03 mins info Lebanon\u2019s government has said that its military will need at least four months to complete the second phase of its plan to dismantle Hezbollah\u2019s arsenals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}