U.S. Envoy Barrack: Disarming Hezbollah Unrealistic, Lebanon's Stability Depends on Talks With Israel
U.S. Special Envoy to Syria and Lebanon Tom Barrack said on Saturday that international expectations from Lebanon to be able to disarm Hezbollah are "unreasonable," but added that the group does not constitute a serious threat to Israel.
Barrack told Saudi outlet Asharq News that he is concerned about the faltering of Beirut's attempts to disarm Hezbollah, calling for weapons in the country to be limited to state authorities. However, the envoy noted the difficulty in telling Lebanon to "forcibly disarm one of your political parties. Everyone's scared to death to go into a civil war."
"The idea is," he said, "what can you do to have Hezbollah not utilize those rockets and missiles?"
According to Barrack, the path to stability in Beirut is the beginning of negotiations with Israel. He noted that if Lebanon does not reach out to conduct direct talks, the conditions in Lebanon may deteriorate.
"Israel, every day, is bombing the south," he said. "Why? Because you still have thousands of rockets and missiles that are threatening it."
Barrack said Israel has been "very clear" on its stance since the October 7 attack: "We are going to defend our boundaries, we're going to defend our borders. You put your weapons down, Hezbollah, and we will not have a problem."
"You can't say the word 'Israel' in Lebanon," he said. "It's illegal to have a conversation with Israel. What era are we living in?" The envoy added that Israel is "sitting ready to make border and boundary agreements with all its neighbors."
"And it owes America a favor," he noted, recalling the U.S. strikes on nuclear sites in Iran, which he described as President Donald Trump doing "something for Israel that was an incredible reshaping of the region."
He warned, however, that "We don't have time for this diplomatic cadence," and addressed the Lebanese people directly, saying, "You do not have time."
"You have to go from the payphone to Starlink," he said, referring to Elon Musk's satellite internet service. "Not the payphone to home phones, not home phones then to cell phones. You've got to go to Starlink."
"And Starlink is: you go from Beirut to Tel Aviv," he said. "You have that conversation on the Blue Line, you have the conversation with Syria, and in four months, you could end all of this."
In September, Lebanon's cabinet approved a plan to disarm Hezbollah, saying the plan's practical implementation is contingent on Israel fulfilling its commitments in accordance with the cease-fire agreement signed in November.
Since the cease-fire agreement was signed in November 2024, Israel has maintained a routine of strikes in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah's attempts to rebuild its infrastructure in the area.
Overnight into Thursday, a Lebanese civilian was killed in an Israeli army strike on the town of Blida in the country's south. The incident sparked anger in Lebanon, and President Joseph Aoun vowed to respond to similar attacks in the future.
Barrack referred to Lebanon as a "failed state," adding, "There's no central bank. The banking system is bust. There's no electricity."
"You want electricity? You need a private generator," he said. "You want water? You need private water. You want education? You need private education. So what's the state? The state is Hezbollah."
The envoy contrasted the conditions in Beirut compared to the south, saying that in Hezbollah-controlled territory, the group "gives you water, gives you an education, gives you a stipend, has 40,000 soldiers."
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"The LAF, Lebanese Armed Forces, has 60,000 soldiers," he noted. "The only problem is, Hezbollah soldiers make $2,200 a month; the LAF soldiers make $275 a month. The Hezbollah soldiers have 15,000–20,000 rockets and missiles. The LAF soldiers are driving old Jeeps, some AK-47s. So which army is which? What's happening here?"
Barrack also said that in President Trump's eyes, Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. "The flag on Hezbollah says 'death to Israel, death to America.' We get it – you're not our friend." However, he noted that the United States recognizes that in Lebanon, Hezbollah "happens to be a political party also."
At the end of the interview, Barrack said that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is expected to visit the White House later in November, expressing hope that Syria will join the international coalition against ISIS during the visit.
It will be al-Sharaa's second trip to the United States after addressing the UN General Assembly in New York in September. The envoy added that talks between Israel and Syria on a security agreement are progressing.
In September, efforts to reach a security pact between Syria and Israel hit a last-minute snag over Israel's demand that it be allowed to open a "humanitarian corridor" to Syria's southern province of Sweida.
Syria and Israel had come close to agreeing on the broad outlines of a pact after months of U.S.-brokered talks. The pact was intended to create a demilitarized zone that would include the province of Sweida, where sectarian violence in July killed hundreds of people from the Druze, an offshoot of Islam.