Beirut : Lebanese President Michel Sulaiman said the government cannot ask Hezbollah to give up its arms at a time of heightened Israeli tension and before agreement on a national defence strategy was reached.
Israeli allegations last month that Syria had transferred long-range scud missiles to Hezbollah fuelled security concerns although Lebanon and Syria both denied the charge, while Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has refused to comment.
Hezbollah is on the US' terrorism blacklist, but it is also part of the Lebanese government.
Syria says it only gives Hezbollah political backing and that Israel may be using the accusation as a pretext for a military strike.
"To demand now, in this regional atmosphere full of dangers and the drumbeats of war that Israel is banging everyday, and before we reach an agreement on a national defence strategy to protect Lebanon, we cannot and must not tell the resistance ... ‘Give us your weapons and put it under the state's command'," Sulaiman was quoted as saying in ad-Diyar newspaper on Saturday.
