Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem declared on Wednesday that calls for the terrorist group to disarm served Israeli interests, following renewed international pressure on Iran’s Lebanese proxy.
Qassem insisted that such demands align with Israel’s strategic goals. He vowed that Hezbollah will resist efforts to disarm it or to convince it to withdraw from Southern Lebanon.
“Anyone calling today for the surrender of weapons, whether internally or externally, on the Arab or the international stage, is serving the Israeli project,” AFP quoted the terrorist leader as saying in a televised address marking the first anniversary of the targeted killing by Israel of senior commander Fuad Shukr.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Thursday that Beirut is resolute in its intention to disarm Hezbollah. Speaking during an address for Army Day, Aoun said: “Lebanon is committed to asserting state authority across all its territory, to removing all weapons from armed groups—including Hezbollah—and to transferring these arms to the Lebanese army,” according to AFP.
Qassem accused U.S. envoy Tom Barrack of using “intimidation and threats” with the aim of “aiding Israel.”
The Shi’ite cleric, who replaced Hassan Nasrallah as Hezbollah’s leader following Nasrallah’s assassination by Israel in Beirut in September 2024, admitted earlier this month that the Iranian-backed terror group underestimated the extent of Israel’s infiltration of its supply chain and communication systems before the Sept. 17-18 pager attacks that wounded thousands of its members.
Qassem said he had formed an investigative committee to probe numerous breaches, including the booby-trapped communication devices, as well as how Jerusalem was able to locate and assassinate Nasrallah and top Hezbollah terrorist Hashem Safieddine.
