An image grab taken from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV shows Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivering a speech in 2024. On Wednesday, Qassem said negotiations with Israel should be limited to “mutual security.” Photo by Al-Manar TV/UPI | License Photo
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Wednesday that Lebanon’s negotiations with Israel should be limited to “mutual security” to secure Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, adding that efforts to overthrow the Iranian regime had failed and that the regional balance of power had changed.
Qassem said in a televised speech that the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, which aimed at overthrowing its regime, had failed to achieve its goal and that the “course of events has changed.”
“The arrogance of American tyranny has been broken, and its colonial project against Iran has failed,” he said. “Iran is now a significant power with influence in the region and the world. The balance of power will change for the better, in the interest of the peoples of the region.”
Qassem praised his Shiite militant group, which has been armed and funded by Iran since it was founded in the early 1980s, for confronting Israel and thwarting its “Greater Israel” project.
He said Israel wanted to “eliminate” Hezbollah militarily, politically, and at the popular level, thereby “eradicating the existence of a large segment of Lebanese society through killing, displacement, or forced relocation to other areas.”
Israel launched attacks against Hezbollah after it opened a support front for Gaza on 8 October 2023, killing its top leaders and military commanders, as well as thousands of fighters, and reoccupying parts of southern Lebanon.
Shiite communities in southern Lebanon have been among the communities most affected by Israel’s campaign against the Iran-backed group, through the displacement of some 1.2 million people and widespread destruction of villages in the region — their historic heartland.
More than 3,826 people have been killed and 11,851 injured since March 2, when Hezbollah resumed fighting after 15 months of relative inactivity.
Qassem said his group was fighting Israel to defend the “existence… and future of our people,” as well to prevent it from controlling and “settling in our land.”
As Lebanon engaged in U.S.-mediated direct negotiations with Israel to stop the war despite Hezbollah’s objection, Qassem set new terms for the talks.
“The ceiling of negotiations with the Israeli enemy is mutual security; there is no other ceiling,” he said. “Any proposal that involves disarmament will not pass, as it is Israel’s formula to take everything and destroy the country.”
Disarming Hezbollah has been a recurring Israeli demand aimed at securing its northern border and enabling a withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
Qassem said negotiations should focus on ending Israel’s “aggression,” securing its withdrawal from all Lebanese territory, the release of prisoners captured during the war, and allowing the displaced to return to their villages, as well as the start of reconstruction.
He rejected any “safe areas” for Israel or the adoption of “pilot zones” for its gradual withdrawal from southern Lebanon, adding that the Lebanese army would be deployed exclusively south of the Litani River, in accordance with any agreement that may be reached.
Qassem expressed readiness to cooperate with the Lebanese authorities on the deployment of the army but advised them to “break away from direct negotiations,” saying they “had resulted in nothing but concessions.”
Another round of direct military and diplomatic talks between Lebanon and Israel is scheduled to take place in Washington next week.
Hezbollah has been pushing to drop the Washington talks in favor of the U.S.-Iran negotiations track, which includes Lebanon in a ceasefire agreement to be signed by both sides in Geneva on Friday.
