Middle East & North Africa
Lebanon: Hezbollah demands its truck with 780 kg of explosives back – the army deploys in Beirut, Salam insists on the state’s arms monopoly
Tension is running high in Beirut between the Lebanese authorities and Hezbollah after the seizure of a truck carrying about 780 kg of explosives; the group admits the truck and cargo are its own and wants them returned.
Tension prevails in Beirut between the Lebanese authorities and Hezbollah after the seizure of a truck carrying about 780 kilograms of explosives at a checkpoint in Dahr al-Baidar, on the Beirut–Damascus road. According to Asharq Al-Awsat, the organisation admitted that the truck and its cargo belong to it and is asking for them to be returned and for those detained in the case to be released.
The Lebanese army has for days deployed strong forces in Beirut, especially around the southern suburbs and their entrances, in anticipation of new demonstrations by Hezbollah supporters.
Government: no retreat
President Joseph Aoun will convene a meeting with the heads of the security services at the presidential palace on Monday afternoon, with the explosives cargo also on the agenda. Government sources say the services will keep implementing the government’s decisions and rule out backing down on the recent security and judicial measures.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said decisions on war and peace “must remain exclusively with the state and its constitutional institutions”. He met Justice Minister Adel Nassar and prosecutor Rami al-Hajj on the investigation, stressing that “every action will be governed by the law”.
On Friday, youths on motorcycles tried to block a patrol of the Internal Security Forces during a raid on a warehouse of expired medicines near the southern suburbs, until the army intervened. Hezbollah denies any connection to the warehouse, while the son of its secretary-general, Naim Qassem, denies reports that he was a partner.
Positions of the parties
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah had said the group “will not tolerate measures directed against it to satisfy American demands” and on Sunday asked why the government seems determined “to provoke tension instead of defusing it”. Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Habchi accused Hezbollah of invoking the threat of civil war to buy time. Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Iraq, recalled the August 2025 decision on the state’s monopoly on weapons.
Washington has already made its position clear, with Marco Rubio asking Aoun not to return the explosives to Hezbollah. Meanwhile Beirut is asking for the UN as a “third party” after UNIFIL’s withdrawal, and Aoun told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot that he prefers an extension of its mandate but is open to alternatives that keep an international presence in the south.
