Lebanon will come up with a plan on August 31 to convince Hezbollah to disarm, US Special Envoy for Syria and Lebanon Thomas Barrack said on Tuesday.
Israel will give a counterproposal when it receives Lebanon’s plan, Barrack said after meeting with the Lebanese president in Beirut.
Barrack said the plan Lebanon was preparing would not necessarily involve military action to persuade Hezbollah to give up its weapons.
“The Lebanese army and the government are not talking about going to war. They are talking about how to convince Hezbollah to give up those arms,” he said.
Meanwhile, Barrack said, his country would approve the extension of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon’s (UNIFIL) peacekeeping mandate for one more year.
Israel signaled it would reduce its military presence in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese Armed Forces acted to disarm Hezbollah, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack (L) delivers a statement, as he is accompanied by US deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus, following a meeting with Lebanon’s president at the Presidential Palace in Baabda on August 26, 2025. (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
In a statement released on Monday, Netanyahu’s office praised leaders in Beirut for their “momentous decision” to disarm Hezbollah, calling the move “a crucial opportunity for Lebanon to reclaim its sovereignty and restore the authority of its state institutions, military, and governance — free from the influence of non-state actors.”
Last week, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem warned the Lebanese government against confronting the Iran-backed group, stating that there would be “no life” in Lebanon if it did.
Hezbollah was severely weakened by a war with Israel last year in which many of the terror group’s leaders and fighters were killed. A US-brokered peace agreement that ended that conflict requires the Lebanese state to disarm armed groups.
Qassem said Hezbollah and its ally Amal had postponed street protests against the US-backed disarmament initiative, allowing room for dialogue with the government, but that future protests could target the US Embassy in Beirut.
In a Monday speech, Qassem also said that the Lebanese government must first ensure Israel complies with the November ceasefire before talks on a national defense strategy could take place. He criticized the government for pursuing its current policy.
Since the beginning of the ceasefire, the IDF says it has carried out over 500 airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, killing at least 230 operatives and destroying dozens of sites belonging to the terror group, saying they violated the terms of the truce.
A handout picture released by the Iranian presidency shows the deputy chief of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, Naim Qassem, during a meeting with Iran’s new president in Tehran on July 29, 2024 (Iranian Presidency / AFP)
Israel has also signaled it would not hesitate to launch more destructive military operations if Beirut failed to disarm Hezbollah.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel is entitled to act against immediate threats posed by Hezbollah, but must forward complaints about longer-term threats to an oversight committee.
Israel and Hezbollah engaged in hostilities for over a year after the Lebanese terror group began firing at Israel, unprovoked, in solidarity with its ally Hamas after the Gazan group carried out a massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The rocket fire from Lebanon displaced some 60,000 residents of northern Israel. In a bid to ensure their safe return, Israel stepped up operations in Lebanon in September, leading to two months of open warfare with Hezbollah in which the terror group’s leadership and arsenal were decimated.
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