Lebanon’s cabinet on Friday welcomed a plan drafted by the army to disarm Hezbollah but decided to keep its contents secret, the information minister said, a move that could escalate the standoff over the Shi’ite Muslim group’s arsenal, which it has refused to relinquish.

The Iran-backed group and its allies object to the disarmament plan and all five Shi’ite ministers walked out of the cabinet session as soon as Lebanese army commander Rodolphe Haykal entered to present it.

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(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Laila Bassam; editing by Philippa Fletcher)