Sheikh Naim Qassem Says Hezbollah Will Decisively Counter Bids Undermining Lebanon’s Security

AhlulBayt News Agency reported that Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Monday that the movement will “decisively counter any bid meant to undermine the Arab country’s internal security.”

“AhlulBayt News Agency: A high-ranking official from the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement says his group will decisively counter any bid meant to undermine the Arab country’s internal security, and supports efforts aimed at easing tensions among political factions”

ABNA English

In the same statement, Sheikh Qassem said Hezbollah wants “a president who will not surrender to internal or foreign pressures,” and he linked that demand to the 1989 Taif Agreement that “put an end to the civil war in Lebanon.”

ABNA English

The remarks came as the Lebanese Parliament failed to elect a new president for the 11th time, prolonging a government vacuum amid a worsening economic crisis, according to ABNA English.

ABNA English also cited Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah calling for “the election of ‘a brave [Lebanese] president who is willing to sacrifice’” and for “the formation of a government and the salvation of the country.”

Al-Quds News Agency said Sheikh Naim Qassem affirmed that “Direct negotiations do not concern us,” adding that Hezbollah “will not return to what existed before March 2.”

In the same statement, Qassem argued that the Lebanese authority must “halt direct negotiations with the Israeli enemy and rely on indirect negotiations,” and he called for canceling the March 2 decision that “criminalizes the resistance and its people.”

akhbar-rooz

Al-Quds News Agency also framed the dispute around the Taif Agreement, saying the authority must return to its people “by the consensus on which the Taif Agreement built our current constitution.”

The statement warned that “No matter how much the enemy threatens, we will not retreat, nor bow, nor be defeated,” and it said Hezbollah would “respond to the Israeli aggression and confront it.”

CAREP Paris reported that on August 7, 2025, the Lebanese Council of Ministers meeting under General Joseph Aoun announced its agreement on the terms of an American plan imposing a timetable for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

The analysis said the plan provided for confirmation of the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel on November 27, 2024, and it described a timetable for Hezbollah’s disarmament alongside a gradual withdrawal from positions south of the Litani in coordination with the Lebanese army and UNIFIL.

CAREP Paris added that Hezbollah’s leadership said it would regard the government’s decision as nonexistent and that its deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem called the disarmament a “cardinal sin,” accusing the government of acting under foreign pressure.

The same CAREP Paris account said Hezbollah’s leaders stated they “will act as if the decision does not exist,” and it described protests erupting in Beirut’s Shiite suburbs and in southern Lebanon after the decision was announced.