A Lebanese ministerial committee has drafted a compromise position on the issue of Hezbollah weapons, the country’s information minister said on Friday.
The draft implies the group can keep its arms and opens the way for parliament to approve a new government that includes the militant group.
However, the draft statement announced by the minister, Tarek Mitri, was deliberately vague, saying that the army and Hezbollah have the “right to liberate all Lebanese territories,” without explicitly saying the Shiite opposition group is allowed to keep its weapons.
The issue has been a longtime point of disputes, with many in Lebanon’s Western-backed majority wanting to disarm Hezbollah — a demand the group staunchly rejects.
The compromise came after more than three weeks of political wrangling and marathon sessions.
Mitri told reporters after Friday’s meeting that the ministerial committee agreed “on the right of Lebanon’s people, the army and the resistance to liberate all its territories.”
“Resistance” is Lebanon’s jargon for Hezbollah, admired nationwide for its stand against Israel.
“All territories” alludes to the fact that Lebanon considers the disputed Chebaa Farms in the south of the country that were captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war as its own territory.
The Cabinet is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss and approve the draft before referring it to parliament. Approval in the parliament will constitute the basis for a vote of confidence in the new government.
After Lebanon’s 1975 to 1990 civil war ended, militias were dissolved but Hezbollah was allowed to keep their weapons because they were considered by the government a resistance group fighting the Israeli occupation forces.
Many officials from the Western-backed majority have asked that the draft not include the word “resistance” and that “liberating the occupied lands” be exclusively within the authority of the national army.
But Hezbollah and its allies strongly rejected the call and insisted that the word “resistance” be used in the policy statement.
Lebanon has been rife with tension as the pro-Western Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has struggled to form a national unity government in which Hezbollah will have veto power in all government decisions.
The Hezbollah-led opposition won the concession in May as part of an Arab-brokered deal that ended a political stalemate that had stoked sectarian tension and threatened to plunge Lebanon into another civil war.
Before the May deal, 81 people died nationwide and more than 200 were wounded after Hezbollah militants and their allies overran streets in Beirut and clashed with government supporters. Sectarian violence since the deal has killed 29 people.
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