Will Hezballah disarm?

Washington Post:

En route to a new round of Middle East negotiations, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday that she was encouraged by Hezbollah's general agreement to disarm and accept an international force in Lebanon, which she called a "positive step" that also strengthens the Lebanese government in the illusive search for a cease-fire.

"Obviously we are all trying to get to a cease-fire as quickly as possible, so I'll take this as a positive step," Rice told reporters on her plane flying from Malaysia to a refueling stop in Qatar. "I think there are a lot of elements that are coming together."

Hezbollah signed on to the joint proposal "in principle" after negotiations Thursday with the caveat that more talks will be held after agreement is reached by the U.N. Security Council on an international force on the border, according to Hezbollah and Lebanese government officials. The radical Shiite Muslim movement would maintain its heavily armed militia in the south during the talks.

...

-- The central element --- and deal-breaker -- is disarmament of Hezbollah. But this does not have to happen before a cease-fire or even soon, U.S. officials say. The goal is to get a formal commitment and to outline arrangements, possibly to eventually bring members of Hezbollah's militia into the Lebanese Army reserves or in another capacity and to get their arms into a government-controlled depot. European envoys point to some similarities with the disarmament of the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.

...

The burden on this deal is to demonstrate how there would be substantive differences if these changes take place. If the Hezzies just put on a Lebanon military uniform and keep doing what they have been doing then the result will just be window dressing and the attacks on Israel will continue under the auspices of the Lebanonese government.

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