At a high-level meeting in Kuwait, Lebanese foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib indicated that he was in no position to demand that Hezbollah, the Iran-linked Lebanese militia and political party, “hand over” its enormous arms stockpiles in the interest of Lebanon’s stability.

However, Bou Habib insisted that Lebanon would not be used as “a launchpad for activities that violate Arab countries,” according to Reuters.

The remarks by Bou Habib—formerly Beirut’s ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 1990—appear to represent a setback to the negotiation process between Lebanon and the Gulf states, which have pushed authorities in Beirut to constrain Hezbollah’s activities and floated the possibility of improved ties and badly-needed investment.

The meeting in Kuwait, which took place on Saturday, was intended to repair the deteriorating relationship between Lebanon and the Gulf states. This deterioration was brought about in large part by the activities of Hezbollah, which some experts have warned grew more influential within Lebanon after the country’s financial collapse in late 2019.

Although it is opposed by a wide cross-section of Lebanese society, the group has maintained its political and military power throughout the crisis. Hezbollah’s leader, cleric Hassan Nasrallah, recently indicated that the group had as many as 100,000 trained fighters on its payroll.

Consequently, the Lebanese government—whose armed forces are by some accounts weaker than Hezbollah’s—has been constrained in its options in dealing with the group.

“I am not going to hand over Hezbollah’s weapons,” Bou Habib told the Qatari state-run Al Jazeera media network prior to the meeting. “I am not going to end Hezbollah’s existence, it is out of the question in Lebanon. We are going for dialogue.”

Hezbollah, which was formed in 1982 to oppose Israel’s military intervention in the Lebanese Civil War, was the only militia that refused to disarm at the end of the conflict. It fought the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in an inconclusive war from 2006 to 2007 and has since gathered a massive arsenal of tens of thousands of rockets for use against Tel Aviv in a future military conflict. The group has also assisted Iran’s regional foreign policy, sending thousands of its fighters to strengthen the forces of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in his country’s civil war.

In the run-up to the meeting, the Kuwaiti foreign minister proposed that Lebanese authorities establish a timeframe for acceding to UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of all private militias within the country.

Bou Habib’s remarks appear to be a sign that Lebanon will not accept the terms of the resolution—or, at least, that it is waiting for more optimal political conditions to do so.

When asked about the resolution by Al Jazeera, Bou Habib simply said that its implementation would “take time.”

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters