Can Lebanon disarm Hezbollah? | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast where. we go behind the headlines to find out. more about a story that really matters. And today we're looking at Lebanon's. efforts to disarm Hezbollah. This military and political group is. designated a terrorist organization by. the US, the UK, and others. As an ally. of Hamas, it waged months of war against. Israel in the aftermath of the October. the 7th attacks. Now, the Lebanese army. says it's completed the first phase of a. plan that would see Hezbollah give up.

its weapons. But can that plan really. succeed? Well, I'm joined now by BBC. Arabic's Karen Torby who's in Beirut. Karen, first of all, tell us more about. what the Lebanese army are saying that. they've actually achieved. Well, they say that today they declared. that they have completed the. implementation of phase one of a plan to. disarm all military groups within the. country. Phase one refers to the area.

that is very close to the border with. Israel, all the border towns with Israel. in the south of the country and it is. south of a very known river in the south. of the country which is called the Leani. River. This plan was commissioned by the. government uh back in August last year. and the government asked the Lebanese. army to implement um um multi-phase plan. in order to disarm all military groups.

across all the territory. And today the. army is says that it has completed phase. one and that basically the only area. that is not under its full control in. this uh in this particular region is um. is the the positions that are still. occupied by Israel in Lebanon across the. border. >> And what has Israel's response been to. this? Well, the Israeli prime minister. office issued a statement and in this.

statement it said that the efforts by. the Lebanese government and the uh. Lebanese army are an an encouraging. beginning but they are far from. sufficient according to the statement. and the statement continues to say that. there are evidence that Husbah um is. actually rearming and rebuilding its um. terror infrastructure. to quote the the. prime minister, Israeli prime minister's. statement with Iranian support. Of.

course, the Lebanese army says that it. has not seen any evidence of Hazbalah. receiving a new arsenal or new weapons. But this is the statement that was. issued by um the Israeli prime. minister's office to today and it still. um we still remain to see whether Israel. will see this as um um something that. could be built on as Lebanon hopes in.

order to solve pending issues because. Lebanon considers that it is fully. complying with an agreement that was um. agreed with Israel back in 2024 and that. put an end to um to the war between. Hzbollah and Israel and that it is. Israel from Lebanon's perspective that. is continuously violating this a. agreement and Lebanon demands that. Israel withdraws from Lebanon that. Israel stops its strikes on on Lebanon.

Israel says that it's targeting. Hzbollah's position and infrastructure. and that Israel releases all the. Lebanese hostages held by it. >> Reminders of the importance of Hezbollah. in Lebanon, which many describe as a. state within a state. >> Well, the emergence of Hezbollah goes. back to 1982 following the invasion of. um uh the Israeli invasion of the. capital Beirut. And uh from the outset.

it was supported and sponsored by Iran. And for a long time it launched um. operations that were seen in Lebanon as. resistance operation against the Israeli. occupation of southern Lebanon. And that. occupation lasted until um 2000. After. that um Hezbollah continued to to. basically be present in Lebanon in a. significant way. not only as a.

paramilitary force that was still. referred to as resistance group but also. politically. was very getting more and more. influential with a very u large base of. support especially within the Shia. community and it was represented in the. parliament with you know a very. significant representation later in the. in the in the government and it became. part an integral part of the political.

system in the country alongside being a. very very important and strong and. powerful paramilitary group. in 2006. um uh it fought a almost a month-long um. war with Israel and this ended with a. big boost toah internally. It was seen. as some sort of a victory for Hazbah and. it helped consolidate its image as a. very powerful uh paramilitary um group.

and that continued basically until um. 2023 following Hamas attack on Israel in. on October 7. Then Hzbalah the day after. opened what it called the solidarity. front from Lebanon in support um with. Gaza and that front basically meant that. Hezbollah started by targeting Israeli.

positions and what issued was almost a. year-long um tit fortat low inensity. conflict betweenah and the and Israel. but that all changed in September. mber. 2024 when it all escalated with a. massive campaign from Israel against. Lebanon. And um that really was a. full-blown war that ended uh in November.

2024 with an agreement that was. sponsored by the United States that was. called agreement for the sessation of. hostilities between Lebanon and Israel. But after that war, Hezbollah came out. very severely battered. >> And of course, it lost its longtime. leader, didn't it, to Hassan Nazala, who. was killed by Israel. >> That was a massive blow as well. That. was one big blow to to the party and. maybe beyond as well. Um and up to this.

moment, we can say that it's still. reeling uh from uh that huge loss for uh. for the party. What it lost as well was. uh some sort of a political. um kind of cover within Lebanon because. although there was always a lot of. opposition within the country against. the presence of Hazbah as a paramilitary. group this wasn't really uh making any. um big difference within the country and.

you know within and for the presence of. of. what happened uh afterwards was the uh. election of a new president and the. coming of a new uh government is. basically some sort of a change of. course internally regarding. and that explains basically the decision. by the government that um to disarm all. uh military groups in the country. It. doesn't really mention Hzbollah by the. name but everyone knows that the main.

military group in the country the most. powerful one is Husbah and this is a. decision that was considered you know. just um a year ago um as something. completely. you know uh [snorts] not not expected in. the country and it happened and it. showed that basically there was a huge. change of course politically in the. country that came in parallel to the. weakening of Hzbollah, the huge military. weakening of Hzbollah.

>> Thanks, Karen. That was Karen Torby. there in Beirut for BBC Arabic. And you. can find out more on the Global News. podcast. Just find it wherever you get. your podcasts. If you particularly liked. this episode, please subscribe to us. here on YouTube. And if you want us to. cover another story, please tell us in. the comments below. But that's it from. this edition. Thanks for watching and. listening to us here on YouTube.