While U.S. efforts accelerate to impose a lasting settlement between Lebanon and the Israeli Occupation after months of war and mutual escalation, developments on the ground appear to be moving in the exact opposite direction.

As pressure mounts on Hezbollah from both inside Lebanon and abroad, the group’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem made a striking overture to Riyadh, urging Saudi Arabia to turn the page and rally around a common enemy: the Israeli Occupation.

Hezbollah has reset the debate over handing over its weapons to the Lebanese state, declaring it will keep its arms until the Israeli Occupation withdraws from all occupied Lebanese territories, despite having recently shown some flexibility on the issue.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt dropped a major bombshell by announcing the handover of the Progressive Socialist Party’s weapons to the state, calling it an “encouraging step” for other parties to centralize arms under Beirut’s authority.

Hezbollah faces growing political and military challenges, weakening its influence in Lebanon.