The Lebanese government decided on Wednesday to send the army to the south for the first time in decades. Lebanon's PM Fuad Saniora sstated after the meeting "we won’t allow any party in or outside Lebanon to take our people in the direction that it desires and we have suffered from states within the country."
Earlier, the cabinet decided at an extraordinary meeting to begin the deployment of 15,000 troops in south Lebanon on Thursday, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said. He added Hizbullah had agreed that the army can take possession of any weapon "found" in the area where troops are planning to deploy. If any weapon is found, even our brothers in Hizbullah said: 'let the Lebanese army take it,'" he told reporters.
"There will be no authority besides state authority, there will be no arms outside the authority of the state," he said.
The deployment is the first in decades along the border area with Israel which has long been under Hizbullah's control.
