'Substituting' Iran's influence: US offers Lebanon incentives as part of plan to disarm Hezbollah

Envoy Tom Barrack suggests attracting Gulf investment and new economic zone in southern Lebanon

The US is offering incentives for Lebanon, including a new economic zone in the south, in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament, US envoy Tom Barrack said on Tuesday in a speech at Baabda presidential palace in Beirut.

In what appeared to be an attempt to neutralise Iranian influence, Mr Barrack pointed out that Tehran “has been the financier of the growth of Hezbollah”.

“So how do we substitute that?” he said. “We bring in the Gulf countries simultaneously and a new economic zone, which will have some depth to it in the next few weeks.”

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Axios previously reported, quoting sources, that the US was considering creating an economic zone in parts of southern Lebanon, with backing from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Mr Barrack added: “For the south … there are 40,000 people there being paid by Iran to fight. What are you going to do with them? You want to take their weapons and say, 'by the way, go plant more olive trees?' It's not going to happen, we need to help them.

“The Gulf, the US, the Lebanese, we have to create an economic forum to produce a livelihood, not set up on whether Iran wants it or not.”

An informed source close to Hezbollah told The National that the industrial zones amounted to “false promises”.

“In addition to it being an attack on Lebanon’s sovereignty, who has the right to determine the purpose of using these lands? The Lebanese people not the Americans,” the source said.

“In reality, their actions contain a lot of arrogance, stubbornness and impudence,” they said of the proposal by “a deceitful America, a merchant America.

“They want to talk about establishing economic interests and factories in the border areas, thinking the Lebanese will find it tempting in exchange for the failure to allow their return to their villages and towns.”

Proposal and counterproposal

Mr Barrack’s comments came as he joined fellow US envoy Morgan Ortagus for meetings with Lebanese officials this week after holding talks in Israel.

This month, Lebanon’s Cabinet narrowly approved a US-backed proposal calling for Hezbollah to disarm, which Mr Barrack described as “heroic”. The move was immediately condemned by Iran and its allies.

The US envoy said Beirut is expected to submit a plan by August 31 on how to implement Hezbollah’s disarmament, after which Israel will present a counterproposal on withdrawing from the five positions it still occupies – in breach of ceasefire terms – in southern Lebanon.

Mr Barrack said he believed Hezbollah could be convinced “in a non-adversary, non-civil war environment to join one Lebanese state”.

Israeli forces have remained in the five strategic positions in Lebanon since its ground invasion in October 2024 during a war with Hezbollah, despite a truce agreed in November in which complete withdrawal was a condition.

It has broken the ceasefire hundreds of times, with almost daily air strikes mostly in the south but also in Beirut, which it says have targeted Hezbollah members.

US envoys Tom Barrack and Morgan Ortagus in Beirut. AFP

Israeli military's chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir has even boasted that air strikes on Lebanon had breached the ceasefire about 600 times.

“Israel will meet tit-for-tat,” Mr Barrack said. He also urged the Lebanese government to hold direct talks with Israel, a country it does not recognise.

“You haven’t spoken to Israel since 1949, this is insanity,” he said. “I’m not even going to go towards the fact that eventually you’re going to have to speak to Israel.”

Hezbollah has affirmed it will not negotiate on a disarmament plan until Israel withdraws from all five points.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said there would be “no life” for Lebanon if the government opposed the group, accusing it of yielding to US pressure on behalf of Israel.

On Monday, Mr Qassem said Hezbollah would not allow its weapons to be removed.

The source close to Hezbollah accused Mr Barrack of returning “empty-handed” to Lebanon, with no guarantees that Israel will move forward with its side of the deal.

“America’s policy is only blackmailing Lebanon and putting pressure on it in exchange for providing Israel with all the guarantees and prioritising Israeli interests over any other interest,” the source said.

'Optimistic, not naive'

A western diplomat described the atmosphere of the US visit as “optimistic but not naive”.

“It is positive in the sense that some progress is being made but there are no illusions,” the diplomat told The National. “What prevailed after the 2006 war, a kind of sham agreement that allowed all sides to act as they pleased despite the accords, is no longer acceptable. The international community will not tolerate half measures or window dressing.”

The ceasefire agreed after the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel called for the group’s disarmament south of the Litani River, about 30km from the border with Israel, and for Israel to stop breaching Lebanese airspace.

A UN peacekeeper stands on a hill overlooking a Lebanese border village destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. AP

That agreement was loosely applied, however, with both sides failing to meet their commitments and Hezbollah rebuilding its arsenal south of the Litani.

The diplomat said that, as the principle of a state monopoly of weapons has been established, the government in Beirut should now focus on the future of those arms.

“Up until now they have destroyed the weapons, but Hezbollah, for its part, wants to keep open the possibility for Lebanon to have heavier armaments, including ballistic missiles,” the source said. “Israel does not want this. What is going to happen is the crux of the issue.”