Lebanon’s Hezbollah rejects disarmament, warns against dragging army into conflict

Shafaq News – Beirut (updated 20:06)

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said on Friday the group will not give up its weapons, insisting there can be “no Lebanese sovereignty without the resistance.”

In a televised speech, Qassem condemned an August 5 government decision that, he said, would “strip the resistance of its weapons” and pave the way for fighters to be expelled from their homes. He accused the cabinet of executing “American and Israeli orders” to end the resistance, even if it meant civil war, and serving “the Israeli project” — a stance he said explained the “joy” expressed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Qassem argued that the decision targeted the resistance’s legitimacy instead of focusing on ending Israel’s occupation of Lebanese territory, urging the government to plan for confronting the ongoing assault, not “handing over the country to the Israeli enemy.”

Warning against drawing the military into internal disputes, Qassem said the army’s leadership rejects such a role.

He also pointed to Netanyahu’s recent talk of a “Greater Israel” — which he said refers to control over all of Palestine and parts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon — as evidence of the threat facing the country.

“We have said repeatedly: stop the aggression, remove Israel from Lebanon, and you will have from us every possible facilitation when discussing national and strategic security,” Qassem concluded.

Responding, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Qassem’s statements “carry a veiled threat of civil war,” stressing that “no one in Lebanon wants such a war.” He rejected Qassem’s claim that the government is implementing foreign agendas, asserting, “Our decisions are purely Lebanese, and the accusation that we are executing an American-Israeli project is entirely baseless.”