Shafaq News- Beirut (Updated at 11:20)

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel had brought the country nothing but humiliation, disappointment, and successive concessions.

In remarks marking the commemoration of Arbaeen*, Qassem stressed that the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran, not Lebanon-Israel talks, was responsible for ending the wider Israeli assault and reducing it to its current scale. "Iran worked to place Lebanon in the first item of the memorandum and set the halt of the aggression and the Israeli withdrawal as a condition."

A seventh round of negotiations is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Rome between Lebanon and Israel. The two sides reached a framework agreement on June 26, after five rounds of talks, providing for the disarmament of Hezbollah and a phased Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas of southern Lebanon.

On relations with Damascus, Qassem stressed the importance of the "fraternal, positive, and cooperative" relationship between Lebanon and Syria, affirming that "a stable Syria is a source of support for Lebanon, just as a stable Lebanon is a source of support for Syria." He added that "there is no obstacle to a public meeting between Hezbollah and the Syrian leadership when the appropriate time comes."

Read more: Lebanon's Hezbollah shifts from battlefield to political fight over weapons

*Arbaeen marks 40 days after the killing of Imam Hussein bin Ali, the third Imam in Shia Islam.