Hezbollah says it will ignore cabinet disarmament decision

Hezbollah said it would treat Beirut's decision a day earlier to disarm it "as if it did not exist".

"Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's government committed a grave sin by taking the decision to disarm Lebanon of its weapons to resist the Israeli enemy," the group said in a statement.

"This decision undermines Lebanon's sovereignty and gives Israel a free hand to tamper with its security, geography, politics and future existence. Therefore, we will treat this decision as if it does not exist".

The Lebanese cabinet on Tuesday authorised the army to draw up a plan to restrict arms across the country to six official security forces by year's end.