http://archive.today/2025.09.04-202551/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/us/politics/lebanon-hezbollah-disarm.html

Lebanon’s leaders are running out of time to disarm the militant group Hezbollah before they risk losing U.S. and Gulf Arab financial support, and even a renewed Israeli military campaign, the Trump administration warned ahead of a key cabinet meeting in Beirut on Friday.

The warning comes at what U.S. officials call a critical moment in Lebanon’s history, as the country’s cabinet considers a plan to force the decades-old Iran-backed group to surrender its weapons.

The United States, Israel and the Gulf Arab states are pressuring Lebanon’s government to act decisively and not be intimidated by Hezbollah threats to incite violence.

The Trump administration’s involvement in Lebanon draws far less attention than its peacemaking efforts in places like Ukraine and Gaza. But with those other efforts stalled, Lebanon may offer a better opportunity for a breakthrough.

Such an outcome would make Lebanon more stable and give it a chance to rebuild its stunted economy. Sunni Muslim nations in the region have said they would reward decisive action against Shiite Hezbollah with billions in economic aid.

Disarming Hezbollah would also benefit Israel, which has faced years of cross-border attacks. Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas, the Gazan militant group, after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks the group led and the subsequent war in Gaza. Some 60,000 residents in northern Israel have been displaced.

Under the ever-looming shadow of Lebanon’s civil war, which ravaged the country from 1975 to 1990, Trump officials worry that Hezbollah’s talk of violence may spook Lebanese leaders into backing down.

But those U.S. officials said those fears were unfounded.

Hezbollah’s patron, Iran, is weakened after Israeli attacks this year, they noted. And after Syria’s pro-Iran dictator, Bashar Assad, was overthrown last year and replaced with a government hostile to Iran, Tehran’s traditional supply route to Hezbollah has been choked off.

The Trump team’s approach continues intensive diplomacy begun under the Biden administration last year, in a rare point of continuity between the two on foreign policy.

The greater risk to Lebanon from delay or half-measures, U.S. officials say, is that Israel will conclude it must “finish the job,” as one put it, through renewed military campaign that could incur major damage and casualties.

Israel has already established several military outposts in southern Lebanon in response to what it calls Hezbollah’s failure to observe the 2024 cease-fire. Some analysts believe Israel may establish a depopulated “security zone” in the country’s south, as it did in the mid-1980s.

Lebanese leaders complain that Israel has not made a credible commitment to withdraw in concert with a disarmament plan. That leaves them exposed to political charges that they are doing the bidding of a foreign occupier by acting against Hezbollah.