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Qassem rejects deal
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem again rejected the Lebanon-Israel framework agreement and refused to “surrender,” saying, “We are against the framework agreement and call for its downfall,” in a televised address broadcast on the group’s Al-Manar channel.
“We are against the framework agreement and call for its downfall”
The Reuters and NDTV accounts tie the renewed rejection to US-sponsored direct talks that began after Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2, which was followed by “massive strikes and a ground invasion” that Lebanese authorities say killed more than 4,300 people.
At talks in late June, Lebanon and Israel signed a framework deal calling for disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon, and deployment of the Lebanese army to the region starting in “pilot zones,” with a fresh round planned for early September but no date announced.
Shafaq News adds that Qassem said Hezbollah would accept only the November 27, 2024 agreement reached under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, and he criticized Lebanese authorities’ direct negotiations with Israel for failing to produce either a ceasefire or an Israeli withdrawal.
Quotes and competing frames
Qassem described the process as illegitimate and said Hezbollah would not accept the “pilot zones” or “what comes from them,” while also rejecting any proposed verification system in the NDTV account.
In the same NDTV report, Qassem said, “The framework agreement is illegitimate, unlawful, humiliating, destructive to Lebanese sovereignty,” and he added that he did not agree to “either the ‘pilot zones’ or to what comes from them.”
Shafaq News frames the dispute as “Israeli aggression,” rather than a mutual war, and it quotes Qassem saying, “Washington was not neutral between Lebanon and Israel.”
Le Monde similarly reports Qassem’s insistence that Hezbollah “refuses the verification commission” tasked with overseeing implementation, and it says the June 26 agreement was concluded under U.S. auspices and provides for Lebanese army authority in the south subject to Hezbollah’s disarmament in “pilot zones.”
Violence, UNIFIL, and next steps
Even as violence has dropped since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June and the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement later that month, Lebanon still reports “regular Israeli strikes, artillery shelling and broad demolitions of civilian buildings” in southern villages and towns, according to The Economic Times.
“regular Israeli strikes, artillery shelling and broad demolitions of civilian buildings”
The Economic Times also says Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared “security zone” running around 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanese territory along the border, and it notes Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported several Israeli airstrikes in the south including on the Nabatieh area.
Separately, مونت كارلو الدولية reports that the UN Security Council will hold a closed session on Friday, August 28 to discuss the situation in Lebanon and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mandate ending on December 31, after which a gradual withdrawal is expected to be completed by 2027.
In that same UNIFIL report, the mission is described as supporting Lebanon and Israel in implementing commitments under UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and monitoring developments on the ground, while local reports say Beirut is seeking to extend UNIFIL’s mandate and, if it is rejected, propose an alternative international force under UN auspices during the transitional period.