West Asia

The secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance group has rejected calls to disarm Hezbollah and establish a state monopoly on weapons while Israel continues to occupy parts of southern Lebanon, urging the Beirut government to stop making commitments that serve Israeli interests. In a televised speech broadcast from the Lebanese capital on the occasion of Hezbollah Martyrs’ Day, Sheikh Naim Qassem called on Lebanese authorities to stop discussions on the government’s plan to establish a monopoly on arms across the country, citing Israel’s continued acts of aggression.

“This is disarmament under naked Israeli aggression, as the occupying regime is aggressively seeking to strip Hezbollah of its weapons,” Sheikh Qassem said, asking, “Where is the sovereignty that the political authorities claim to be pursuing?” The Hezbollah chief stated that some Lebanese officials seek to surrender the resistance and the Arab nation to Israel in pursuit of their own interests. “This country belongs to all of us, and we must all protect it.

The army’s role is to preserve civil peace and defend Lebanon; yet they want a military that fights its own people, plunges the country into internal strife, and implements Israeli demands for disarmament,” Sheikh Qassem pointed out. He stressed that the urgent priority for the Beirut government is to stop the Israeli aggression, force the Israeli military to withdraw from southern Lebanon, ensure the return of displaced people to their towns and villages, and begin reconstruction.

The Hezbollah leader noted that the US-brokered framework agreement signed between Lebanon and Israel on June 26 represents a series of free concessions to the Tel Aviv regime, granting it favors without securing any gains for the Lebanese nation. “I urge the Lebanese authorities to withdraw from it,” he emphasized. Sheikh Qassem said the framework agreement violates Lebanon’s 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended the country’s civil war, undermines its Constitution and infringes on its national sovereignty, while deepening divisions among the Lebanese people.

“Lebanon faces a choice between sovereignty, protected by the Army, Hezbollah, and the people, and foreign tutelage, occupation and surrender. Our choice is sovereignty. We call on the Lebanese authorities to unite under the principles of sovereignty, national unity and liberation, fund the Army through the state budget, and reject conditional assistance,” he said. Elsewhere in his remarks, Sheikh Qassem emphasized that Iran has established itself as an influential power in West Asia, and any future regional order will be shaped with its support.

“The regional landscape will change, but not in accordance with the US-Israeli vision. Their era is over. [Persian] Gulf and regional countries have an opportunity to reach an understanding with Iran on shaping the region’s future,” the Hezbollah chief stated. The secretary general also demanded that Beirut summon the ambassadors of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. He condemned them for interfering in Lebanon’s domestic affairs by criticizing Hezbollah, while turning a blind eye to the Israeli military occupation.

Ending his speech, Sheikh Qassem described the recent political defeats suffered by US President Donald Trump in the US midterm elections, and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Israeli legislative elections as a dramatic fall for Israel, its project, and its allies.