BEIRUT / ISTANBUL

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Friday that a US delegation visiting Beirut this week brought “an Israeli diktat that forces us to surrender.”

Jumblatt said in an interview with the French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour that the delegation's message was clear: "Disarm Hezbollah, and then we will see how to convince the Israelis to withdraw," according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA).

The two-day visit, which began on Tuesday, included meetings with Lebanese officials.

The US team included Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Lindsey Graham, Rep. Joe Wilson, US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack, and Morgan Ortagus, an adviser to Washington’s mission at the UN.

Talks focused on the Lebanese government’s pledge to monopolize weapons within the state and the Israeli withdrawal from five positions it occupied during the latest war.

Jumblatt, a former head of the Progressive Socialist Party, rejected what he called “imposed surrender.”

He argued Lebanon must first prioritize the liberation of occupied territories and the implementation of international resolutions.

“The focus on weapons will not be accepted by a large part of the Shiite community,” he said, stressing that the solution lies in dialogue with Hezbollah.“ Its secretary-general, Naim Qassem, is right when he says that the group’s weapons are the soul of its supporters.”

He also noted that Israel has reinforced its positions in southern Lebanon and said partial disarmament has already been achieved south of the Litani River under UN resolutions. But he urged strengthening the Lebanese army in manpower, equipment, and salaries.

“The important thing is that Israeli withdrawal must proceed in parallel with any disarmament process,” he said, warning against repeating past episodes where the army was turned against the people.

On Wednesday, Hussein al-Khalil, a political aide to Hezbollah’s leader, accused Washington, DC, of laying “deadly traps” to pit the army against the resistance.

He charged the US with trying to dismantle Lebanon’s defense capabilities and “turn it into an American-Israeli colony,” according to the National News Agency.

During the US delegation’s visit, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam reaffirmed the government’s commitment to extending state authority, saying the process of monopolizing arms and reserving decisions of war and peace for the state “has begun, and there is no turning back.”

In June, US envoy Barrack presented a proposal linking Hezbollah’s disarmament to Israel’s withdrawal from the five contested border points and the release of reconstruction funds.

The Lebanese Cabinet approved the proposal’s “objectives” earlier this month, including the principle of weapons held only by the state—a move that sparked a dispute with Hezbollah, which refuses to disarm before Israeli withdrawal.

Cross-border firing between Hezbollah and Israeli forces began in October 2023, after the Hamas attacks, and escalated into a full-scale war by September 2024, killing more than 4,000 people and injuring around 17,000.

A ceasefire was reached in November, but Israeli forces have conducted near-daily attacks in southern Lebanon since then, claiming to target Hezbollah activities.

Under the truce, Israel was supposed to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by January, but it only partially pulled out troops and maintains a military presence at five border outposts.