Hezbollah, a long-standing leading force in Lebanese politics, was weakened by more than one year of hostilities triggered by the Gaza War, including invasions on the Israeli ground and two months of heavy bombing, weakening the organization’s leadership.
The battle was largely over by a ceasefire in November, but Hassan Nasrallah, a long-time leader of the group and Qassem’s predecessor, was killed in an Israeli air strike.
“We will not let anyone remove Hezbollah or remove the resistance,” Qassem said in a speech on a television channel affiliated with Hezbollah.
“We must cut the concept of disarmament in the dictionary.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said this week that he hopes to “restrict weapons to the state in 2025”, adding that he hopes to achieve this through a “dialogue” with Hezbollah. QASSEM. QASSEM His team is ready to have a conversation about “defense strategy” and says that in Israel and coge, Israel and cognity and coggy and coge are Israel and coge. Rebuild,” he added.
Another Hezbollah official said the group refused to comment hours before the handover of weapons until Israel completely withdrew from southern Lebanon.
“This is not a disarmament issue,” Wafic Safa said in an interview with Hezbollah’s Al-Nur radio station.
Safa, considered by experts to belong to the most radical faction of the movement, said Hezbollah had conveyed its position to Orn.
Safa asked in his interview: “It is logical for Israel to withdraw its troops first, then release the prisoners, and then stop the aggression…and then do we discuss defense strategies?
“The defensive strategy is about how to protect Lebanon, not preparing the party to hand over weapons.”
Analysts say the once unimaginable idea of Hezbollah disarming may no longer be like this, or even may even be inevitable.
– “The problem is Israel” –
Under the November ceasefire, Israel had originally withdrawn all its troops from southern Lebanon.
But despite the deal, its troops remain in five Southern Lebanese positions that they consider “strategic”.
Israel also continues to conduct nearly daily strikes on Lebanon – including Friday – saying it targets members of Hezbollah.
Under a truce, Hezbollah pulled its fighters back north of the Hebei River in Lebanon and demolished any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Lebanese troops have been deploying in the south as Israeli forces pull back.
Hezbollah said that despite being based on UN Security Council resolution 1701, the ceasefire does not apply to other parts of Lebanon, which requires non-state organizations to be armed.
Hezbollah was the only group that retained its weapons after the end of the 15-year civil war in Lebanon, saying they were in an effort to “resist” to Israel, which occupied the South until 2000.
The U.S. envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus who visited Beirut this month said Washington continued to impose a “stop of complete implementation of hostilities, including the removal of Hezbollah and all militias.”
Qassem said in his speech on Friday that Hezbollah rejected “U.S. control over Lebanon.”
Safa said Hezbollah and Lebanese troops respect the terms of the truce.
“The problem is Israel, it has not been done yet,” he said.
On Saturday, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the group had handed over about 190 of its 265 military positions south of Litani to the Lebanese army.
