US pressures Lebanon to issue cabinet decision to disarm Hezbollah before talks continue

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By Maya Gebeily and Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Washington is ramping up pressure on Beirut to swiftly issue a formal cabinet decision committing to disarm Hezbollah before talks can resume on a halt to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Without a public commitment from Lebanese ministers, the U.S. will no longer dispatch U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack to Beirut for negotiations with Lebanese officials, or pressure Israel either to stop airstrikes or pull its troops from south Lebanon, according to the sources, who include two Lebanese officials, two diplomats and a Lebanese source familiar with the matter. 

    The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington and Beirut have been in talks for nearly six weeks on a U.S. roadmap to fully disarm the militant Lebanese Hezbollah party in exchange for Israel to end its strikes and withdraw its troops from five points in southern Lebanon. 

The original proposal included a condition that Lebanon’s government pass a cabinet decision pledging to disarm Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has publicly refused to hand over its arsenal in full, but the group has privately weighed scaling it back. 

The group, designated a terrorist organisation by the U.S. and much of the West, has also told Lebanese officials that Israel must take the first step by withdrawing its troops and stopping drone strikes on Hezbollah fighters and arms depots.

Hezbollah’s main ally, Lebanese speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, asked the U.S. to ensure that Israel halt its strikes as a first step, in order to fully implement the ceasefire agreed last year that ended months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, according to four of the sources. 

Israel rejected Berri’s proposal late last week, the four sources said. There was no immediate response from the Israeli prime minister’s office to questions from Reuters on the issue.

The U.S. then began insisting that a cabinet vote take place imminently, all the sources said. 

“The U.S. is saying there’s no more Barrack, no more papers back and forth – the council of ministers should take a decision and then we can keep discussing. They cannot wait any longer,” the Lebanese source said.

The source and the Lebanese officials said Prime Minister Nawaf Salam would seek to hold a session in the coming days. Barrack met Salam in Beirut last week and said Washington cannot “compel” Israel to do anything.

In a post on X after his visit, Barrack said that “as long as Hezbollah retains arms, words will not suffice. The government and Hizballah need to fully commit and act now in order to not consign the Lebanese people to the stumbling status quo.”

All the sources said that Lebanon’s rulers fear that a failure to issue a clear commitment to disarm Hezbollah could trigger escalated Israeli strikes, including on Beirut.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Laila Bassam; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller)