Illustrative image.
Hezbollah “will not let anyone disarm” it, the Lebanese group’s leader Naim Qassem vowed on April 18, amid rising pressure from Israel and the United States.
“We will not let anyone disarm Hezbollah or disarm the resistance” against Israel, Qassem said in a televised speech. “We must cut this idea of disarmament from the dictionary.”
Qassem said his group was ready for dialogue on a “defense strategy,” “but not under the pressure of occupation” by Israel.
“Israel must withdraw [from south Lebanon] and cease its aggression, and the Lebanese state must begin the process of reconstruction,” he added.
Under the terms of a November 27 ceasefire, which ended more than 13 months of war, Israel was supposed to completely withdraw from southern Lebanon with Hezbollah retreating up to the Litani River, some 40 kilometers away from the border.
While Hezbollah has been fulfilling the agreement, Israel refuses to leave five strategic posts in southern Lebanon. It also continues to launch strikes against the group in the region and elsewhere in the country.
At least two members of Hezbollah were killed in separate Israeli drone strikes that targeted southern Lebanon on April 18.
A strike in the coastal city of Sidon targeted Muhammad Abdullah, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which said that the man was responsible for the deployment of the Iran-backed terror group’s communication systems across Lebanon, especially in areas south of the Litani River.
Separately, the IDF said that it killed a Hezbollah member involved in “terror activities” in a drone strike on the town of Ayta al-Shaab.
Qassem’s remarks came hours after another Hezbollah official said the group refused to discuss handing over its weapons unless Israel withdrew completely from south Lebanon and halted its “aggression.”
“It is not a question of disarming,” Wafiq Safa said in an interview with Hezbollah’s Al-Nur radio station. “What the president [Joseph Aoun] said in his inauguration speech is a defensive strategy.”
Safa added that Hezbollah had conveyed its position to Aoun, who earlier in the week said he sought “to make 2025 the year of restricting arms to the state” alone.
In his interview, Safa asked: “Wouldn’t it be logical for Israel to first withdraw, then release the prisoners, then cease its aggression… and then we discuss a defensive strategy?”
“The defensive strategy is about thinking about how to protect Lebanon, not preparing for the party to hand over its weapons,” he noted.
The recent remarks by Qassem and Safa could lead to more escalation by Israel, who appear to be looking for excuses to renew its war on Lebanon.
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the beast in occupied palestine only respects violence and punishment. give it all you can until the entire anglozionazi empire of filth is reduced to ash. onward to palestine free of cho$enite vermin.
bwahahahahahahahaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
drop dead idiot!!
israel kill anyone and say hezbollah me,ber is killed or senior member is killed but hezbollah aknowledge very rarely any hezbollah high progile is killed. so it means israel just lying .
of course not – fact of life. the jews can’t win and won’t win however much support the americ*nts will deliver in terms of money and weapons. in fact, in a future ot too distant, the jews will be gone, forever!
any disarmament ideas must be harshly refused, because as we see, the zio war criminals and terror state shlomoland will never stop, if theres not massive resistance.
lets hope islamists will be asap kicked out from damascus, then russia, china and iran could rebuild and rearm syria.