WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun about the confiscation of hundreds of kilograms of explosives from Hezbollah, a US State Department official said on Thursday.

During the call, Mr. Rubio urged Mr. Aoun to hold accountable those who ordered, financed and directed the shipment, and “underscored that returning explosives to (Hezbollah) should be out of the question,” the US official said. He also pressed for direct military-to-military communication between Lebanese and Israeli forces “for deconfliction,” the official added.

The conversation followed comments from a Hezbollah lawmaker who acknowledged earlier that the explosives, seized by Lebanese security forces last week, belonged to his group. The lawmaker, Hassan Fadlallah, said Hezbollah had intended to use the explosives against Israel, whose troops are occupying swathes of Lebanese territory seized in this year’s war. Separately, a Hezbollah official and a Lebanese security source told Reuters that the explosives, found in a car last week, were intended to be used in explosive drones targeting Israeli troops.

According to Lebanon’s presidency, Mr. Aoun told Mr. Rubio that the Lebanese army and security forces were fully carrying out decisions to prevent armed displays, confiscate weapons and combat smuggling. The presidency added that Mr. Aoun asked Mr. Rubio to pressure Israel to halt attacks on southern Lebanese towns and villages.

Lebanon’s government moved on March 2 to specifically ban Hezbollah’s military activities after the movement launched rockets at Israel to back up Tehran, pulling Lebanon into the broader US-Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28. Tehran subsequently carried out its own strikes on Israel and on Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon during the war have killed thousands and displaced millions. Hezbollah’s acknowledgment of the shipment placed the group’s stated intentions at odds with that ban and with Beirut’s vow to disarm the group.

Under a deal reached through US-brokered Israel-Lebanon talks, Beirut vowed to disarm Hezbollah, which would in turn allow Israeli troops to gradually withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah, however, has refused to disarm as long as Israeli forces remain on Lebanese land, and Israel has continued striking southern Lebanon. How the seized explosives are ultimately handled, whether anyone is held accountable for the shipment, and whether the direct military-to-military communication Rubio pressed for takes shape are among the open questions in the arrangement’s implementation. — Reuters