Shiite ministers walk out as Lebanon's Cabinet debates army plan to disarm Hezbollah

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Cabinet discussed Friday a plan drawn up by the Lebanese army to disarm the Hezbollah militant group and consolidate weapons in the hands of the state but appeared to back off from a previously announced deadline to implement it by the end of the year.

Upon the arrival of the army chief, Gen. Rudolph Haikal, ministers from Hezbollah’s political bloc as well as the allied Shiite Amal party and an independent Shiite minister, Fadi Makki, withdrew from the meeting room. The Hezbollah and Amal ministers then left the government palace.

The Shiite ministers had also walked out in protest from the meeting last month in which the Cabinet commissioned the army with drawing up a disarmament plan under which only state institutions in the small nation will have weapons by the end of the year.

Information Minister Paul Morcos said after Friday's meeting that the army “will start implementing the plan, but according to the available resources — there are limited material and human logistical resources” and that the military “has the right of operational discretion.”

He did not specify a new timeline for implementation.

Morcos also said that Israel had not held up its end of the agreement laid out in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November. Since then, Israeli forces have continued to occupy five strategic hills inside Lebanese territory and to carry out near-daily airstrikes.

“Israel, like Lebanon, has clear obligations” under the agreement, Morcos said. “However, its continued violations constitute evidence of its reneging on these obligations and seriously threaten regional security and stability. ”

Israel’s military says its strikes aim to prevent Hezbollah from rearming and to protect residents of its northern border area.

Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has been under increasing domestic and international pressure to give up its remaining arsenal.

Hezbollah officials have said that the group will not consider disarmament until Israel withdraws from all Lebanese territory and halts its attacks.

After last month’s decision to pursue a disarmament plan, Hezbollah accused the government of caving to United States and Israeli pressure and said it would “treat this decision as if it does not exist.”

A Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity, in accordance with the group’s procedures, said Friday that the ministers had agreed to withdraw when the army commander arrived “because we consider that this plan comes out of an illegal decision ... and we will not debate a matter that is built on a basis that we do not recognize as legal.”

Lebanese officials proceeded with caution on disarmament, fearing that an attempt to take Hezbollah’s remaining weapons by force could trigger civil conflict.

Since the ceasefire, the Lebanese army has regularly collected caches of weapons and ammunition from the area south of the Litani River, from which Hezbollah has largely withdrawn, but the group’s heavier missiles and drones have remained hidden.

The Israel-Hezbollah war started when Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September last year.

The Israel-Hezbollah war killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused destruction worth $11 billion, according to the World Bank. Much-needed international funding for reconstruction is likely to be contingent on Hezbollah's disarmament.

In the days ahead of Friday’s Cabinet session, Israel intensified its strikes in southern Lebanon. Lebanese health officials said Thursday that a series of Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon the day before killed four people and injured 17, including four children.

Lebanon’s foreign ministry in a statement condemned the strikes and called on “the international community to pressure Israel to halt its ongoing attacks and respect Lebanon’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the safety of its people.”

The Israeli army said in statements that it had targeted Hezbollah military sites and a facility in the village of Ansariyeh that it said was storing “engineering equipment designated for the organization’s reconstruction and to advance terrorist plans.” An Associated Press photographer who visited the site afterwards found a lot storing bulldozers.

On Wednesday the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, said Israeli drones dropped four grenades close to its peacekeepers as they were working to clear roadblocks near the border. The Israeli army said that it didn’t intentionally target the peacekeepers, but dropped several sonic bombs near a suspect in the border area.

A Lebanese man inspects the site where Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday night hit bulldozers in Ansariyeh village, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People on scooters drive past billboards in support of the Lebanese army with Arabic reading: "We are all with you," set up on the highway leading to Beirut international airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, left, speaks with one of his advisors, as he arrives to lead a cabinet meeting, at the Presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, centre background, leads a cabinet meeting to discuss the army plan for disarming Hezbollah, at the Presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said.

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship’s capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopters approaching the ship before hovering over the deck while armed troops dropped down by rope. At least nine people could be seen on the deck of the ship.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, the ship was partially filled with crude.

Days later, the Veronica became one of at least 16 tankers that left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine that U.S. forces have set up to block sanctioned ships, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com. He said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship movements.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House later Thursday, Noem declined to say how many sanctioned oil tankers the U.S. is tracking or whether the government is keeping tabs on freighters beyond the Caribbean Sea.

“I can’t speak to the specifics of the operation, although we are watching the entire shadow fleet and how they’re moving,” she told reporters.

But other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro’s capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)