File photo: Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem. AP
Speaking during a televised address to mark Ashura on Saturday, Qassem insisted that Hezbollah’s armed wing would not disband unless Israel halts its military operations and meets the terms of a ceasefire agreement signed last November.
“Threats will not make us surrender,” Qassem said. “Don’t tell us to soften our positions — tell the aggressor to stop. Don’t ask us to abandon our weapons.”
Qassem said Israel must abide by the ceasefire agreement, “withdraw from the occupied territories, stop its aggression... release the prisoners” detained during last year's war. He added that reconstruction in Lebanon must begin.
Only after these steps are taken, he said, would Hezbollah “be ready for the second stage, which is to discuss national security and defence strategy.”
The remarks came ahead of a planned visit by US envoy Tom Barrack on Monday, who has been pressuring Beirut to disarm Hezbollah as part of a broader push to stabilize the Israel-Lebanon border.
Qassem rejected the American proposal presented during Barrack’s previous visit on 19 June, calling it “a surrender paper.”
“We will not be part of legitimizing the occupation of Lebanon or the region,” Qassem added. “We reject normalization, which we see as surrender and humiliation.”
Qassem also denounced the “ongoing aggression, killings, and crimes by Israel and the United States.”
“Israel is the problem, not the resistance. The resistance is part of the solution. The continued existence of Israel is the real crisis,” he said.
“We will not accept to live in Lebanon as if we were in a giant prison,” he concluded.
Qassem’s speech was delivered as thousands of Hezbollah supporters marched through Beirut’s southern suburbs to mark Ashura, waving Lebanese, Palestinian, and Iranian flags alongside banners bearing the group’s insignia.
Many also held up images of former Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut in September.
Lebanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the government is preparing a formal response to the US disarmament proposal, due by the end of the year.
They also said Hezbollah’s military positions in southern Lebanon are being dismantled — though Israel has continued its strikes in the area, citing ongoing threats.
Under the terms of the November ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres from the Israeli border, while Israel was to pull its troops from Lebanese territory.
However, Israeli forces remain deployed at five border positions.
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