Pressure from Tehran on Hezbollah to reach a ceasefire and “cut its losses” is one of the factors that led the Lebanese terrorist group’s deputy leader Naim Qassem to on Tuesday signal its readiness for a ceasefire, Beirut sources told Channel 12 on Tuesday.
Hezbollah has received several blows from Israeli forces in recent weeks, devastating its leadership ranks.
It lost its long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah to an Israeli Air Force bombing run on his underground compound in Beirut’s Dahiya suburb on Sept. 27.
“We support the political efforts led by [Hezbollah-aligned Parliament Speaker Nabih] Berri under the banner of achieving a ceasefire,” Qassem said in a statement.
Berri heads another Shi’ite group in Lebanon, the Amal Movement, and its parliamentary wing.
Observers noted that Qassem left out any connection to Gaza, a first for Hezbollah, which until now had linked any cessation of hostilities with the end of the Gaza war.
“Hezbollah officials are no longer demanding a truce in Gaza as a condition for reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon, rowing back from an oft-repeated promise to keep fighting until Israel halts its offensive against Hezbollah’s Iran-backed ally Hamas,” Reuters noted on Wednesday.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters his group remained confident that Hezbollah’s stance had not changed.
However, a Lebanese government official told the news wire that Hezbollah had altered its position due to pressures, including the mass displacement of its main Shi’ite constituencies fleeing the fighting.
Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas’s invasion. It has fired projectiles on an almost-daily basis since.
