The Lebanese government and army should ensure the disarmament of Hezbollah, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said as he warned of the dangers of the paramilitary group’s involvement in neighboring Syria in advance of Wednesday’s closed-door UN Security Council debate on the matter in New York.
“I continue to urge the government and the armed forces of Lebanon to take all measures necessary to prohibit Hezbollah and other armed groups from acquiring weapons and building paramilitary capacity outside the authority of the State,” Guterres wrote.
“The continued involvement of Hezbollah in the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic… carries the risk of entangling Lebanon in regional conflicts and undermining the stability of Lebanon and the region,” Guterres said.
The Syrian National Coalition earlier said that the Syrian people and all peoples of the region are looking forward to ending the role of this terrorist organization which acts as an arm of the Iranian regime. It also called for a decisive end to the disasters that this organization brought to peoples of the region.
The UN chief’s remarks coincided with increasing regional and international calls for disarming the Hezbollah militia in view of its involvement in regional conflicts, which risks undermining chances of reaching a political solution in those countries, especially in Syria.
Germany and Great Britain have recently designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization with both its political and military wings and banned all activities of the group on their soil. The Syrian Coalition urged all countries to follow suit in view of the atrocities this militias is committing in several countries. (Source: SOC’s Media Department)