Hezbollah warns it will fight Lebanese army if confronted
A plan that is steadily taking shape puts the Lebanese military — which officials described as under-resourced — on the front line of dismantling Hezbollah. Israeli soldiers occupying southern Lebanon would gradually hand off responsibility to Lebanese troops. The two sides agreed on a structure for the handover process during direct talks in Rome last week and began early implementation this week, according to officials cited by the Journal.
The Trump administration is trying to address the Lebanese military’s weaknesses by training, equipping and vetting individual units to go after Hezbollah, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Fox News interview in April. “The ideal outcome here would be one in which you wouldn’t need an Israeli presence,” Rubio said, while acknowledging it was a tall order for the country’s military, which has not been tested in such a role.
Critics of the plan question the U.S.’s ability to vet Lebanese soldiers and fear that it could fracture the Lebanese army along sectarian or political lines, according to people familiar with the matter cited by the Journal. Lebanese soldiers do not want to be perceived as doing Israel’s work, and many lack the will to fight their countrymen, analysts said. The military also harbors Hezbollah sympathizers. The U.S. Treasury said in May that Hezbollah receives intelligence tips from officials within Lebanon’s state security organizations, including the military.
Hezbollah has made clear how it would react if U.S.-backed forces moved against it. “We will fight [them] just as we fight the Israeli army,” said Hassan Fadlallah, who represents Hezbollah’s political wing in Lebanon’s parliament.
President Trump has suggested that Syria could help tackle Hezbollah by securing its porous border with Lebanon. Iran has long smuggled weapons and supplies to Hezbollah through Syria. Trump said at a NATO summit in Turkey that Syrian leader Sharaa made commitments to help the U.S. counter Hezbollah.
But direct Syrian military involvement in Lebanon is unpopular across Lebanese society. Lebanon remains haunted by periods of Syrian dominance and military occupation from 1976 to 2005. “Plans that are being floated to involve the Syrians in an armed engagement with Hezbollah bring back bad memories,” said Ghassan Hasbani, a former deputy prime minister and now a member of the Lebanese parliament opposed to Hezbollah.
Syria’s new military includes radical Sunni Islamists accused of killing Syrian minorities en masse, raising fears of a cycle of atrocities, analysts said. Syrian troops are spread thin on their own territory, and Sharaa has worked to stay out of the regional fray, establish stability at home and build ties with the West. “Sharaa kept Syria out of the Iran war by treating every external pressure as a reason to consolidate at home,” said Nanar Hawach, a senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group. “The result is a country that emerged from a regional war more relevant than it entered it.”
Israeli security officials said the country has conducted operations that have devastated Hezbollah’s senior leadership, depleted its missile stockpile and thoroughly infiltrated the militant group, but they added that Israel needs Lebanese cooperation to achieve disarmament. “Israel doesn’t have the option to disarm Hezbollah,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House in London. “It can keep fighting Hezbollah and erode its capabilities, but disarming is part of a much bigger process.”
Skeptics point to Israel’s multiyear campaign in Gaza, which caused widespread destruction but left Hamas still armed and in control of territory, albeit largely defanged. Khalil Helou, a former general in Lebanon’s military opposed to Hezbollah, said the group has been embedded in Lebanese Shia society for 42 years. “Israel, the strongest army in the region, is recognizing that disarmament of Hezbollah will take years and could involve invading all of Lebanon,” Helou said.