Lebanese Minister of Tourism Joe Sarkis attacked Hizbullah once again Monday, calling the group to withdraw from the south.
In an interview with al-Jazeera, Sarkis said, "Hizbullah must ease the situation and must apply the decision unanimously agreed upon in the cabinet to support Resolution 1701. The wording of the decision is clear: the Lebanese army cannot deploy in the south until Hizbullah withdraws and hands of over its weapons, or at least removes it weapons from this area. The Lebanese army was very clear about this issue."
When asked to respond to Hizbullah's claims that the organization cannot hand over its weapons as long as its operatives are deployed in the south, the tourism minister said: "It was possible to discuss this in the cabinet meeting scheduled for Sunday night and was cancelled. We were supposed to hear the army's plans."
"The army is aware of all of this. The Hizbullah must give all in its possession to the army – it is the national army, not an enemy army. The army is meant to be the alternative to Hizbullah in the south," he added.
"According to the decision, (Hizbullah must) hand over its weapons within a week, Israel is supposed to carry out her gradual withdrawal past the blue line, and the Lebanese army is supposed to enter," said Sarkis.
One the same token, Communications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said that the countries interested in participating in the UNIFIL force are doing so on the condition that there will be no weapons except those of the Lebanese army in the south.
"In the last few hours we have spoken with the Italians, the Spanish, the Pakistanis, the Turks, the Indonesians, and more. All of them expressed full willingness to take part in the force, but on one condition – they said 'we do not want to confront anyone'" he told the al-Arabiya news network.