President Aoun and Prime Minister Salam:

We write to you with a critical message: disarm Hezbollah now, including by force if necessary. A year has now passed since Lebanon agreed under the November 2024 ceasefire to begin a staged process toward dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure and restoring state authority across all Lebanese territory.1 Yet empty promises and partial measures that fall far short of disarming the group are clearly not enough. The lack of real progress has enabled Hezbollah to rearm and rebuild its positions, even in areas south of the Litani River, where it is prohibited from operating under UN Security Council Resolution 1701.2 3 Every day your government fails to act in a meaningful way pushes Lebanon closer to renewed war and deeper into the grip of a terrorist organization loyal to Iran, not to the Lebanese people. The consequences are visible across Lebanon. Families in the south remain displaced, their homes caught between Hezbollah’s weapons and Israel’s defense.4 What was meant to be a ceasefire for reconstruction has instead become an enabler for Hezbollah’s reconstitution. The Lebanese people cannot truly be free while a terrorist group that uses them as human shields for its own survival continues to operate without restraint. As you work to implement your reform agenda and stabilize Lebanon’s economy, a prosperous Lebanon cannot coexist with an armed Hezbollah, nor can it thrive while its national army is sidelined by a militia acting as a state
within a state.
The time for empty promises has passed. Lebanon’s obligations under the ceasefire are clear, and
so is the risk of continued delay. If Hezbollah continues to rebuild its arsenal and threaten
Israel’s border, Israel will act to defend its citizens, as any nation would. The United States will
also find it increasingly difficult to justify continued support for a government that refuses to uphold its own commitments and allows a terrorist organization to dictate its future. The current path of inaction only brings about Lebanon’s ruination at the hands of Hezbollah

There is a third phase: to deradicalize Gaza, something people believed was impossible — Netanyahu

'But it was done in Germany, it was done in Japan, it’s done in the Gulf states, it can be done in Gaza, too'