News - Middle East: Lebanon’s parliament speaker has strongly criticized an American proposal for Hezbollah’s disarmament due to its failure to provide any guarantees for the Israeli regime’s withdrawal from the country.

Nabih Berri made the remarks in an interview that was published on Friday amid Washington’s escalating pressure, through envoy Tom Barrack, on the Lebanese government to have the resistance movement lay down its arms.

He denounced Barrack’s failure to pressure Israeli officials into providing assurances regarding the withdrawal.

The Lebanese official expressed deep frustration with the diplomat’s performance, saying that instead of pressing the regime over the withdrawal, he had “brought us the opposite of what they had promised.”

According to Berri, Barrack had recently met with Israeli officials, only to be reportedly told by them that “there will be no Israeli withdrawal before Hezbollah disarms.”

On August 7, the government approved the “objectives” of the proposal, and three days later, it announced a “timeline for Hezbollah’s disarmament,” saying the Lebanese military would “set out a plan to bring all weapons under state authority before the end of 2025.”

Such developments have sparked widespread grassroots protests across the country, with the participants describing Hezbollah’s defensive power and prowess as indispensable to Lebanon’s sovereignty and security.

Since its inception in 1982, the movement has fended off countless incursions into the country by the Israeli regime, which has been occupying Shebaa Farms, a strip of land along Lebanon’s border with the occupied Palestinian territories, since 1967.

The defensive push has included the group’s forcing the Israeli military to retreat during two full-scale wars against the nation in 2000 and 2006.

The American proposal, Berri added, was, therefore, “worse than the May 17 Agreement,” a deal that was scrapped in 1984 after mass rejection.

Hezbollah, itself, has, meanwhile, vowed not to lay down its arms, cautioning that the Israeli regime’s managing to implement the disarmament scheme via the US would be followed by Tel Aviv’s seeking to further expand its occupation.

Source: Press TV