A man checks the damage at a site targeted by an Israeli air strike the previous night in Hawsh Tal Safiyeh near Baalbek in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley. AFP
"It is not a question of disarming," Wafic Safa said in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Nur radio station.
"What the president (Joseph Aoun) said in his inauguration speech is a defensive strategy."
Safa said Hezbollah had conveyed its position to Aoun, who on Tuesday said he sought "to make 2025 the year of restricting arms to the state" alone.
A ceasefire agreement in November ended more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, sparked by Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, including two months of Israeli escalation on Lebanon that included a ground invasion in the south.
In his interview, Safa asked: "Wouldn't it be logical for Israel to first withdraw, then release the prisoners, then cease its aggression... and then we discuss a defensive strategy?"
"The defensive strategy is about thinking about how to protect Lebanon, not preparing for the party to hand over its weapons."
Under the November ceasefire, Israel was to withdraw all of its forces from south Lebanon.
But despite the deal, Israeli troops have continued to occupy five south Lebanon positions.
Israel has also continued to carry out near-daily strikes against Lebanon -- including on Friday -- killing dozens, including civilians and fighters.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said on Tuesday that "at least 71 civilians" had been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon since the ceasefire, while Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah claimed last week that the death toll had reached 186.
Under the truce, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of Lebanon's Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Lebanon's army has been deploying in the south near the border after Israeli forces pulled back.
Hezbollah says the ceasefire does not apply to the rest of Lebanon, despite being based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the disarmament of non-state groups.
Hezbollah was the only group to keep its weapons after Lebanon’s civil war ended in 1990, citing "resistance" against Israel, which had attacked Lebanon repeatedly since its first invasion in 1978 and before the group’s founding in 1982 -- in response to Israel’s second invasion of Lebanon that same year.
US special envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus, who visited Beirut this month, said Washington continued to press Lebanon's government "to fully fulfil the cessation of hostilities, and that includes disarming Hezbollah and all militias".
Safa said on Friday that both Hezbollah and the Lebanese army were respecting the terms of the truce, which Israel continues to violate.
"The problem is Israel, which has not done so," he said.
On Saturday, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the group had ceded to the Lebanese army around 190 of its 265 military positions identified south of the Litani.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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