US envoy satisfied with Lebanon's response to Hezbollah disarmament proposal

The latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict began a day after Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel and intensified in September, leaving the Iran-backed group badly bruised and much of its political and military leadership dead.

A US official said on Monday that he was satisfied with the Lebanese government's response to a proposal to disarm the Hezbollah militant group, adding that Washington is ready to help the country emerge from its long-running political and economic crisis.The US envoy to Lebanon, Tom Barrack, spoke to journalists after meeting President Joseph Aoun, saying he will study the government's seven-page response.Barrack said the American and Lebanese sides are committed "to get a resolution.""What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time and a very complicated manner," Barrack said during a news conference at the presidential palace south of Beirut.His meetings in Lebanon came amid fears that Hezbollah’s refusal to immediately disarm would renew conflict with Israel after a shaky ceasefire agreement went into effect in November.Last month, Barrack gave Lebanese officials a proposal that aims to disarm Hezbollah and move on with some reforms to try get Lebanon out of its nearly six-year economic crisis, the worst in its modern history.The economic meltdown is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon’s political class.Barrack said Lebanon should change in the same way as Syria has following the fall in December of President Bashar al-Assad, who was replaced by a new leadership that is moving ahead with major economic reforms.Barrack said President Donald Trump and the US are ready to help Lebanon change and "if you don’t want change, it's no problem. The rest of the region is moving at high speed," he said.Hezbollah’s weapons have been one of the principal sticking points since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.The two sides fought a destructive war in 2006 that ended in a draw.The latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict began a day after Hamas' 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel and intensified in September, leaving the Iran-backed group badly bruised and much of its political and military leadership dead.Since a US-brokered ceasefire went into effect in November, Hezbollah has almost ended all its military presence along the border with Israel, which is insisting that the group disarms all over Lebanon.Aoun said on Sunday that the number of Lebanese troops along the border with Israel will increase to 10,000, adding that only Lebanese soldiers and UN peacekeepers will be armed on the Lebanese side of the border.On Sunday night, hours before Barrack arrived in Beirut, Israel’s air force carried out strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, wounding nine people, according to state media.The Israeli army said the strikes hit Hezbollah infrastructure, arms depots and missile launchers.Earlier on Sunday, Hezbollah's leader Naim Kassem reiterated the militant group's refusal to lay down arms before Israel withdraws from all of southern Lebanon and stops its air campaign.The Hezbollah-Israel conflict left over 4,000 people dead in Lebanon and caused destruction estimated at $11 billion (€9 billion).In Israel, 127 people, including 80 soldiers, were killed.Since the November ceasefire, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on different parts of Lebanon, killing about 250 people and injuring over 600.Israel is also still holding five strategic posts inside Lebanon that it refused to withdraw from earlier this year.