Lebanese President Joseph Aoun declared on 11 July that all weapons in Lebanon must be placed exclusively under state control, calling the decision “final and irreversible.” He emphasized that only the Council of Ministers is constitutionally empowered to decide issues of war and peace. Aoun also ruled out normalizing relations with Israel, saying Beirut’s immediate objective is to maintain a “state of no war” while Israel still occupies pockets of southern Lebanese territory. The president added that Lebanon seeks good, non-interfering relations with Syria under its new leadership. Israeli security officials, speaking separately to regional media, said they expect the Lebanese Army to continue dismantling Hezbollah’s military capabilities. The officials warned that Israel would keep conducting operations in Lebanon as long as Hezbollah retains an armed wing, describing every Hezbollah fighter as a potential target and vowing that the group’s elite Radwan Forces would be dismantled “by them or by us.” Aoun met earlier with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who is preparing a cabinet discussion on disarming Hezbollah, after Salam held talks with U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson. The moves underline renewed international and domestic pressure to implement U.N. resolutions that envision the Lebanese state, rather than non-state actors, holding the country’s weapons.