Lebanese prime minister bans Hezbollah’s military activities

By Wassim Seifeddin

BEIRUT (AA) - Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Monday his government has banned Hezbollah’s military and security activities and limited the group’s role to political work, ordering the army to enforce a plan to restrict weapons to state control north of the Litani River.

“The state rejects any military or security actions launched from Lebanese territory,” Salam told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting at the presidential palace east of Beirut, chaired by President Joseph Aoun.

He said the Cabinet decided to prohibit any military operations outside “legitimate state institutions.”

“The decision of war and peace rests exclusively with the state,” he stressed.

Salam said the move requires limiting Hezbollah’s activities and obligating the group to hand over its weapons, describing its recent actions as “a violation of Cabinet decisions.”

He instructed the Lebanese army command to implement the government’s plan decisively, particularly the provision aimed at restricting weapons north of the Litani River.

Hezbollah said early Monday that it had targeted a military site in northern Israel with a barrage of rockets and drones, in response to ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon and a joint US-Israeli military campaign on Iran.

Israel launched a series of airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon in response, killing at least 31 and injuring 149, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

*Writing by Lina Altawell in Istanbul