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Middle East|U.S. Middle East Envoy Presses Lebanon to Disarm Hezbollah
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/world/middleeast/us-middle-east-envoy-presses-lebanon-to-disarm-hezbollah.html
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The visit by the envoy, Morgan Ortagus, coincided with a spike in Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in recent weeks that has stoked fears of a renewed conflict.
Oct. 29, 2025, 11:21 a.m. ET
A senior U.S. envoy to the Middle East pressed the Lebanese government on Wednesday to completely disarm Hezbollah by the end of this year as part of efforts to stabilize a shaky cease-fire with Israel.
The visit by the envoy, Morgan Ortagus, coincided with an intensification of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in recent weeks.
“We continue to monitor developments in Lebanon and welcome the government’s decision to bring all weapons under state control by the end of the year,” Ms. Ortagus said in a statement on Wednesday. The Lebanese military “must now fully implement its plan,” she added.
In August, the Lebanese government endorsed a U.S.-backed road map to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year. But its military forces have been hampered by limited resources, and it is unclear whether that deadline will be met.
The Trump administration has grown frustrated with what it considers slow progress and has been increasing the pressure on Lebanon to accelerate the process. Disarmament is a requirement of the truce reached last year between Lebanon and Israel, which ended the deadliest war on Lebanese territory in decades.
Lebanon’s armed forces have removed 10,000 rockets and 400 missiles as part of the government’s disarmament plan, which covers both Hezbollah and other smaller armed Palestinian factions in Lebanon, according to the U.S. military. Before the war, Hezbollah was estimated to have 120,000 to 200,000 projectiles, much of which was destroyed in the conflict.
