When the money stops: Hezbollah and the economics of disarmament
The pilot zones were designed to test whether the Lebanese Armed Forces could replace Hezbollah’s territorial presence.
Eight rounds of talks have produced communiques about sequenced withdrawals, verification mechanisms, and security coordination.
The entire diplomatic architecture assumes that disarmament is a military problem requiring a military solution.
It is not.
Hezbollah’s disarmament is already underway, and the mechanism is not the LAF, not the pilot zones, and not the framework agreement.
It is money.
Or rather, the absence of it.
Reports have emerged that Hezbollah may no longer be able to pay the $14,000 it traditionally provides to families whose homes are destroyed by […]