"Hizbullah will only disarm in response to pressure emanating from its own constituency..."

...flagged by mideastwire, this story in FP's/ MEChannel/ here

" ..... While Hizbullah's military arsenal remains a thorn in American-Lebanese relations, talk about forced disarmament is futile. If the Lebanese army forced Hizbullah to disarm, it would lead to its disintegration and to another Lebanese civil war. Alternatively, if the Israelis moved in to disarm Hizbullah, it would result in heavy human casualties on all sides and have disastrous consequences for Lebanon and the region. These types of military interventions are not the answer.

The answer to Hizbullah's successful disarmament is in an intra-Lebanese process of political dialogue. The international community is responsible for creating the political, security and economic incentives and atmosphere in Lebanon and in the region that help promote and support disarmament. It is time to reframe the debate about Hizbullah's weapons by focusing on their Lebanese consumer -- not on their Iranian supplier.

While Iran remains Hizbullah's main arms supplier, young Lebanese Shi'a are its foot soldiers. Hizbullah is first and foremost a Lebanese party and its immediate political goals are Lebanon-centric. ...... The majority of Lebanese, Shi'a and non-Shi'a alike, disagree with the U.S. government's classification of Hizbullah as a terrorist organization.... They credit Hizbullah with the liberation of southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation in 2000, and for defending them against Israeli tanks and warplanes in 2006. Consequently, Hizbullah has been able to successfully create a narrative that they've resisted Israel's military (a high-priority issue for Hizbullah) to meet their constituents' need for physical security, political and economic empowerment (a high-priority issue for Lebanon's Shi'a). As a result, Hizbullah will only disarm in response to pressure emanating from this constituency. Lebanon's Shi'a, in turn, will demand the party's disarmament only if they regard an open-ended military resistance to Israel as detrimental to their physical, political and economic interests and if Lebanon's army can defend them.

How, then, to bring Lebanon's Shi'a to these conclusions? (more/ here)