Lebanon's cabinet has tasked the army with drawing up a plan to establish a state monopoly on arms by the end of the year, a challenge to Hezbollah, which has rejected calls to disarm since last year's war with Israel.⁣ ⁣ The session at Lebanon's presidential palace was the first time the cabinet addressed Hezbollah's weapons.⁣ ⁣ Ministers met for almost six hours. In a concluding statement, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the cabinet had authorized Lebanon's army to develop a plan to ensure that all arms across the country would be confined to six specific state security forces by the end of the year.⁣ ⁣ But as ministers met, Hezbollah's leader Naim Qassem resisted calls to disarm in a televised speech, saying: "I hope you (Lebanese officials) don't waste time on the storms stirred up by external dictates."⁣ ⁣ #lebanon #hezbollah #weapons #israel #us #usa #middleeast