Lebanon’s cabinet has instructed the army to draw up, by the end of August, a detailed plan that would place all weapons in the country under state control by 31 December 2025. The directive adopts a U.S.-brokered, four-phase proposal that also envisages a phased Israeli withdrawal from five positions in southern Lebanon once Hizbollah is disarmed. Shiite ministers representing Hizbollah and its ally Amal walked out of cabinet sessions on 5 and 7 August, objecting to the disarmament clause. Hizbollah later condemned the decision as a “grave sin” and said it would treat it as non-existent. Tehran echoed that stance: senior adviser Ali Akbar Velayati warned Iran would oppose any move to strip the group of its arsenal, prompting Lebanon’s foreign ministry to summon Iran’s envoy and denounce the remarks as unacceptable interference. Tensions escalated on 9 August when a munitions blast killed six Lebanese soldiers and injured others while they were dismantling ordnance inside a Hizbollah weapons depot in Wadi Zibqin, near Tyre. The army said an investigation is under way and vowed to prevent unrest as troops deployed around Beirut’s southern suburbs to deter anticipated protests. President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam hailed the dead soldiers as defenders of national sovereignty. The fatalities underscore the risks facing the army as it implements the cabinet mandate and seeks to enforce the cease-fire deal that ended last year’s Israel-Hizbollah war. The government is due to reconvene later this week to continue debating the disarmament plan amid mounting political, security and regional pressure.