Who Has the Last Say in Lebanon? Hezbollah and the State Both Say They Do.

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News analysis

President Joseph Aoun took office with a popular mandate to reassert control after the militant group dragged the country back into war with Israel.

When Lebanese and Israeli officials sat down in April for their first direct talks in decades, Lebanon’s leaders called it a breakthrough: a chance, finally, to reclaim some control over the country’s fate after Hezbollah had dragged it into yet another war with Israel.

But four months and seven rounds of negotiations later, there is little to show for it. The standstill is a blow to Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, who took office last year with a popular mandate to wrest power from Hezbollah.

Mr. Aoun, elected by Lebanese lawmakers, pledged to restore the state’s monopoly on arms and curtail Hezbollah’s political sway. The government he formed spent much of last year making headway on that promise, working to strip Hezbollah’s influence from the country’s international airport, the commercial port in Beirut, and the banks, all used to smuggle in weapons and cash.

When Hezbollah fired on Israel in March in solidarity with Iran, setting off another all-out war, the shortcomings of the efforts to bring the group to heel were laid bare. However much the Lebanese state had chipped away at Hezbollah’s influence, the group could still drag the country into war.

Israel insists that its forces will remain in the large swath of southern Lebanon seized in this war until Hezbollah is disarmed. On Saturday, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported a series of Israeli airstrikes and demolitions overnight and into the morning in towns and villages around the south. Israeli forces have carried out demolitions and strikes nearly daily for about four months in areas they occupy.

Hezbollah has denounced the talks, saying it will not consider surrendering its weapons until Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanese territory. And while Lebanese officials say they want to eliminate Hezbollah’s military might, the government has little ability, if any, to actually do so.