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Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye have given Hezbollah militant group a "final chance" to disarm and surrender its weapons to the Lebanese government, Saudi-owned outlet Asharq Al-Awsat reported, citing Lebanese ministerial sources.
Disarmament would "spare Lebanon an Israeli strike" that would "deepen the gap" between Hezbollah and the Lebanese people, the report noted.
"Unconditional surrender remains the only passage to provide protection for it and the country so as not to lose the opportunity to save it, which would involve it in a war it does not want and would result in material and human costs that cannot be afforded," the sources said.
"The international community has linked its assistance for rebuilding destroyed towns to the state's monopoly on weapons as the basis for extending its authority over all its territory in implementation of Resolution 1701," the sources said.
Hezbollah "no longer has any option but to accept the exclusivity of weapons" to the state, the ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The alternative would bring "more Israeli pressure by fire on the country amid the imbalance in the balance of power, with Hezbollah losing the rules of engagement and deterrence balance with Israel before it unilaterally decided to support Gaza," the sources said.
The sources confirmed that U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Eisaa is also participating in giving advice indirectly to Hezbollah.
The sources noted that "Hezbollah before its support for Gaza is not the same now after the decline of its military capabilities that it is trying to restore."
"Otherwise, why did it agree to the ceasefire agreement by authorizing its 'big brother,' Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who reached it with the American mediator at the time, Amos Hochstein?" the sources said.
The sources also said Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem "was not obliged to raise his political ceiling by keeping his weapons ahead of the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."
"By raising it, he provided rich material for the latter to justify his expansion of the war," the sources said.
The sources asked why Qassem did not wait, especially with Lebanon on the verge of a mechanism committee meeting in the first week of the new year, which could be attended by the French president's Special Envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian, expected to arrive in Beirut on the eve of the meeting on Jan. 7-8.
The sources revealed that the Lebanese Army recently discovered a Hezbollah tunnel deep in the south of the Litani River, finding long-range missiles for the first time.
The army is following a policy of "nibbling and digesting at the same time" in its search for remaining military installations of the party, whether above or below ground, the sources said.
U.S. General Joseph Cleerfield, head of the monitoring mechanism, expressed satisfaction with cooperation with the Lebanese Army, which achieved success in its deployment south of the river, recognized by UNIFIL command and the mechanism, the sources said.
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