https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/e086af27-352e-454a-a2d7-7a2c2e392961 Hezbollah’s recent announcement that it will not hand over its arsenal to the Lebanese state recalls several watershed moments when the movement fiercely resisted disarmament. Over the past few months, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem has repeatedly reaffirmed that the movement would retain its weapons as long as Israel continued to occupy Lebanese territory. Nevertheless, in August, amid mounting US and Arab pressure to establish a state monopoly on arms, the Lebanese government tasked the army with drawing up a plan to achieve this objective by the end of the year. The move has placed significant pressure on a heavily weakened Hezbollah, following a bruising war with Israel that resulted in the assassination of its historic leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and the loss of much of its senior military leadership. Since the end of the war in late November, Hezbollah has maintained that its weapons remain essential - both to liberate the five areas Israel still occupies since the ceasefire, and to deter ongoing Israeli airspace violations, drone attacks, and potential future threats. Founded in 1982, largely in response to Israel’s massive invasion of Lebanon, Hezbollah waged persistent guerrilla warfare that ultimately forced Israeli troops to withdraw from most of the country’s south in May 2000. As Hezbollah faces the most serious threat to its arsenal since its inception, Middle East Eye looks back at previous attempts to disarm the movement and how it resisted them, sometimes through a combination of political leverage and force. ✍️: MEE/Wassim Mroueh Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:50:26 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tankie.tube https://tankie.tube/lazy-static/avatars/3ba3ff73-a8b6-49c9-add8-9653ef090c7f.webp https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/e086af27-352e-454a-a2d7-7a2c2e392961 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tankie.tube/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.