Hezbollah raised the specter of civil war with a warning on Friday there would be “no life” in Lebanon if the government sought to confront or eliminate the Iran-backed terrorist group.

The government wants to control arms in line with a US-backed plan following Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah, which was founded four decades ago with the backing of Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards.

But the Islamist group is resisting pressure to disarm, saying that cannot happen until Israel ends its strikes and occupation of a southern strip of Lebanon that had been a Hezbollah stronghold.

“This is our nation together. We live in dignity together, and we build its sovereignty together – or Lebanon will have no life if you stand on the other side and try to confront us and eliminate us,” its leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech.

Israel has dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in the last two years, killing many of its top brass, including former leader Hassan Nasrallah, and 5,000 of its fighters and destroying much of its arsenal.

Lebanon‘s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that Qassem’s statements carried an implicit threat of civil war, calling them “unacceptable.”

“No party in Lebanon is authorized to bear arms outside the framework of the Lebanese state,” Salam said in a post on X carrying his statements from an interview with the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

The Lebanese cabinet last week tasked the army with confining weapons only to state security forces, a move that has outraged Hezbollah.

DIALOGUE POSSIBLE

Qassem accused the government of implementing an “American-Israeli order to eliminate the resistance, even if that leads to civil war and internal strife.”

However, he said Hezbollah and the Amal movement, its Shi’ite Muslim ally, had decided to delay any street protests while there was still scope for talks.

“There is still room for discussion, for adjustments, and for a political resolution before the situation escalates to a confrontation no one wants,” Qassem said.

“But if it is imposed on us, we are ready, and we have no other choice … At that point, there will be a protest in the street, all across Lebanon, that will reach the American embassy.”

The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which left parts of Lebanon in ruins, erupted in October 2023 when the group opened fire at Israeli positions along the southern border in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war.

Hezbollah and Amal still retain influence politically, appointing Shi’ite ministers to cabinet and holding the Shi’ite seats in parliament. But for the first time in years, they do not hold a “blocking third” of cabinet posts that in the past enabled them to veto government decisions.

Hezbollah retains strong support among the Shi’ite community in Lebanon but calls for its disarmament across the rest of society have grown.

South Sudan and Israel are discussing a deal to resettle Palestinians from war-torn Gaza in the troubled African nation, three sources told Reuters – a plan quickly dismissed as unacceptable by Palestinian leaders.

The sources, who have knowledge of the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity, said no agreement had been reached but talks between South Sudan and Israel were ongoing.

The plan, if carried further, would envisage people moving from an enclave shattered by almost two years of war between the ruling terrorist group Hamas and Israel to a nation in the heart of Africa riven by years of political and ethnically-driven violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this month he intends to extend military control in Gaza, and this week repeated suggestions that Palestinians should leave the territory voluntarily.

Arab and world leaders have rejected the idea of moving Gaza‘s population to any country.

The three sources said the prospect of resettling Palestinians in South Sudan was raised during meetings between Israeli officials and South Sudanese Foreign Minister Monday Semaya Kumba when he visited the country last month.

Their account appeared to contradict South Sudan‘s foreign ministry which on Wednesday dismissed earlier reports on the plan as “baseless.”

The ministry was not immediately available to respond to the sources‘ assertions on Friday.

News of the discussions was first reported by the Associated Press on Tuesday, citing six people with knowledge of the matter.

Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the Palestinian leadership and people “reject any plan or idea to displace any of our people to South Sudan or to any other place.”

His statement echoed a statement from the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday. Hamas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel, who visited the South Sudanese capital Juba this week, told Reuters that those discussions had not focused on relocation.

“This is not what the discussions were about,” she said when asked if any such plan had been discussed.

“The discussions were about foreign policy, about multilateral organizations, about the humanitarian crisis, the real humanitarian crisis happening in South Sudan, and about the war,” she said, referring to her talks with Juba officials.

Netanyahu, who met Kumba last month, has said Israel is in touch with a few countries to find a destination for Palestinians who want to leave Gaza. He has consistently declined to provide further details.

Netanyahu’s office and Israel‘s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the information given by the three sources on Friday.

Foreign fighters and others who joined Syria’s civil war from abroad have petitioned the new Islamist-led government for citizenship, arguing they have earned it after sweeping to power with rebels who ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad.

The fate of foreign fighters has loomed large since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took power, with few states willing to take back people they often view as extremists and some Syrians wary of their presence.

Many of the fighters and their families, and others including aid workers and journalists who joined the rebels, have no valid documentation. Some have been stripped of their original citizenship and fear lengthy prison sentences or even death in their countries of origin.

But rewarding them with Syrian citizenship could alienate Syrians and foreign states whose support the new government is seeking as it tries to unify and rebuild a country devastated by war and shaken by sectarian killings.

A petition submitted to Syria’s interior ministry on Thursday, seen by Reuters, argues the foreigners should be granted citizenship so they can settle down, own land and even travel.

“We shared bread, we shared sorrow, and we shared in the hope for a free and just future for Syria … Yet for us, the muhajireen [emigrants], our status remains uncertain,” reads the letter.

“We respectfully request that the Syrian leadership, with wisdom, foresight and brotherhood, grant us full Syrian citizenship and the right to hold a Syrian passport.”

The letter was submitted by Bilal Abdul Kareem, a US stand-up comedian-turned-war journalist residing in Syria since 2012 and a prominent voice among Islamist foreigners there.

He told Reuters by phone that the petition aimed to benefit thousands of foreigners from more than a dozen states. That includes Egyptians and Saudis, Lebanese, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Maldivians, as well as Britons, Germans, French, Americans, Canadians, and people of Chechen and Uyghur ethnicity.

Reuters could not determine how many people backed the petition for citizenship, but three foreigners in Syria – a Briton, an Uyghur, and a French citizen – confirmed they did.

A spokesperson for Syria’s interior ministry said the Syrian presidency would be the one to decide on the issue of citizenship for foreigners. A presidency media official did not respond to a request for comment.

In the weeks after taking power, Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly HTS leader, said foreign fighters and their families might be granted Syrian citizenship, but there have been no public reports of such a move.

Some Syrians are concerned, seeing the foreigner fighters as more loyal to a pan-Islamic project than to Syria, and fearing their perceived extremism.

In the months since Assad fell, foreign fighters have been accused of participating in violence targeting members of Alawite and Druze minority religious groups.

A Reuters investigation into violence in Syria’s coastal regions in March in which more than 1,000 Alawites were killed found that Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Chechens, and some Arab fighters participated in the killings, though the majority were carried out by Syrian factions.

‘JUST OUTCOME’

Thousands of Sunni Muslim foreigners flocked to Syria after popular protests in 2011 spiraled into an increasingly sectarian civil war that also drew in Shi’ite Muslim militias from across the region.

They joined various groups, some clashing with HTS, others building a reputation as fierce and loyal fighters whom the group’s leadership even relied on for their personal security.

Many married and started families.

The Uyghur fighter, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the topic, said his goal had shifted to making a life in the new Syria.

“I have a 4-year-old boy who should join school soon, and I have to think about his future away from the battlefields of jihad,” the fighter said.

Tauqir Sharif, a British aid worker who has lived in Syria since 2012, told Reuters in May that foreigners who contributed to society deserved nationality.

“The muhajireen that came were not killers, they were life savers that came here to stop the oppression,” said Sharif, who was stripped of his UK citizenship in 2017 for alleged links to an al Qaeda-aligned group, allegations he denies.

After taking power in December, Syria appointed foreign fighters to senior military posts. It received a US green light to include several thousand in the army, and has handed foreigners other roles.

Supporters of giving foreign fighters citizenship argue it would make them accountable under the law.

“This would be the just outcome of the sacrifices these young brothers and sisters made to free the country from the clutches of Bashar al-Assad,” said Abdul Kareem, who has also been critical of HTS and the new Syrian leadership.

Orwa Ajjoub, a Syrian analyst who has studied Syrian jihadist groups since 2016, said the issue “should be addressed through dialogue with a broad spectrum of Syrian society, which still holds diverse opinions on the matter.”