Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said on Thursday an explosive-laden vehicle seized by the Lebanese Armed Forces belonged to the Iran-backed group.
Mr Fadlallah said Hezbollah had contacted Lebanese authorities to claim ownership of the vehicle as soon as it was intercepted. Its contents were intended “to confront the Israeli occupation” and Hezbollah's weapons were “pointed exclusively at the [Israeli] enemy”, he added.
The Lebanese Armed Forces on Monday said it had seized 200kg of explosives, foiling a smuggling attempt from Syria through the Hermel border region.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said there would be “no leniency” in the investigation and the government “will not tolerate anyone who dares to toy with the country's security, safety and stability”.
The seizure – one of three such interceptions in a matter of weeks – comes as pressure is mounting on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah and bring all weapons in the country under state control. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has remained defiant in rejecting disarmament and says any talks on the fate of its weapons can take place only after Israel halts attacks on Lebanon and withdraws from occupied Lebanese territory.
Israel and Hezbollah have engaged in several bouts of fighting since the onset of the Gaza war in October 2023.
The latest conflict began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel in support of Iran in the regional conflict. Israel responded with a devastating military campaign, killing more than 4,000 people and flattening dozens of villages in southern Lebanon, where it continues to occupy vast areas of territory.
Direct US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon have done little to move the needle, with no real progress on Hezbollah's disarmament or Israel's withdrawal.
The interception of the explosive-laden vehicle has prompted fears of renewed political assassinations in Lebanon, a country with a grim history of such killings. In a second incident, about 250kg of TNT-type explosives and 250kg of the explosive C4 were discovered in a lorry bound for Beirut.
“I understand the anxiety gripping the Lebanese people upon the news of this truck's interception and the materials it was transporting, especially since C4 has been used in several of the infamous political assassinations in modern Lebanese history,” Mr Salam said in a post on X on Monday.
Mr Fadlallah dismissed the Prime Minister's words as an “inflammatory campaign aimed at sowing internal discord” and said Hezbollah would not “deter” the group from “continuing its efforts to defend and liberate their land”.
In the 2000s and early 2010s, several high-profile opponents of the Assad regime in Syria and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah were killed or had attempts made on their lives using explosives. Former prime minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri was killed along with 20 others when a one-tonne lorry bomb was detonated as his convoy was driving through Beirut on February 14, 2005. Hezbollah members were convicted of that attack by the UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon.