BEIRUT (Dispatches) --
Lebanon’s foreign minister said he was not going “to hand over” Hezbollah’s weapons during a meeting this weekend with Persian Gulf Arab counterparts that want Beirut to pressure the movement in exchange for improved ties.
Lebanon will however say that the country will not be “a launchpad for activities that violate Arab countries,” according to sources familiar with a draft government letter responding to Persian Gulf terms for improved ties.
Lebanon was due at the meeting in Kuwait on Saturday to deliver its response to the terms for thawing relations.
“I am not going [to Kuwait] to hand over Hezbollah’s weapons,” Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told Al Jazeera.
“I am not going to end Hezbollah’s existence, it is out of the question in Lebanon. We are going for dialogue.”
Hezbollah supports Lebanon in its regional struggle against the occupying regime of Israel.
Last month, Hezbollah described claims they were helping Yemeni forces fighting a Saudi-led invasion as “ridiculous” and “insignificant”.
The terms delivered to Beirut on January 22 by the Kuwaiti foreign minister include setting a time frame for implementing UN Security Council resolutions, among them Resolution 1559 that was adopted in 2004 and calls for the disarmament of non-state movements in Lebanon.
A draft of the government’s response seen by Reuters sidesteps the issue, expressing Lebanon’s respect for UN resolutions “to ensure civil peace and national stability”, the news agency said.
Lebanon struggles with a financial crisis that the World Bank has described as one of the sharpest depressions ever recorded.
Ties hit new lows last October when Saudi Arabia and several other Persian Gulf states expelled Lebanese ambassadors in response to comments by a former Lebanese government minister criticizing the Saudi-led coalition waging a destructive war on Yemen.
The visit to Beirut last week by Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Muhammad al-Sabah was the first since the rift.
In the draft letter, Lebanon commits “verbally and actually” to a policy of disassociation from regional conflicts.
It also pledges to strengthen measures being taken by Lebanon in cooperation with other Arab states to prevent drug smuggling to Persian Gulf Arab states.
On Saturday, Yemenis gathered in the capital Sana’a, to announce a general mobilization aimed at

countering the devastating war and all-out economic siege led by Saudi Arabia against their country.
According to Al-Maalomah news agency, the residents of the Jahanah area in Sana’a province announced a general mobilization during a tribal gathering on Saturday.
The participants said the U.S. is fully responsible for the aggression against Yemen, ensuing war crimes, and the suffocating siege against the Yemeni people.
In their statement, the Yemenis lauded Yemen Storm 1 and 2 operations, which targeted the depths of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in response to their increased crimes against the Yemeni people, and called for more counter-strikes against the aggressor.