Hezbollah will not lay down its arms, Naim Qassem the secretary-general of the Iranian proxy, said on Saturday, in a public show of defiance of the Lebanon army’s plan to dismantle the terrorist group.
“We will never abandon our weapons, nor will we relinquish them,” Qassem declared, speaking in front of tens of thousands of supporters at the burial shrine of his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah near Beirut Airport to mark the first anniversary of his targeted killing by Israel.
“We are ready for martyrdom,” Qassem added.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was also in attendance at the memorial, which also commemorated the killing weeks after Nasrallah of Hashem Safieddine, considered second in command of the terrorist group.
The remembrance events began on Thursday with the projection of Nasrallah’s and Safieddine’s images onto the iconic Raouche rock in Beirut, despite opposition from the government and no official authorization.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sept. 27, 2024. To mark the anniversary of his death, the pro-Hezbollah Al Mayadeen channel published the final photo of him, which shows Nasrallah sitting in a meeting room with maps of the Middle East spread on the wall. It was apparently taken hours before the Israeli bombing of his underground bunker in Dahiyeh.
“The last image published by Hezbollah’s media shows the ‘master terrorist of the nation’ in a meeting, with behind him a map of Israel—which has remained, and will remain, beyond his and his likes’ reach and their schemes,” wrote Col. Avichay Adraee, the head of the Arab Media Branch in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, in an X post on Saturday with the picture.
الصورة الأخيرة التي نشرها إعلام حزب الله لسيد إرهابيي الأمة في اجتماع وخلفه خريطة إسرائيل التي بقيت وستبقى عصية عليه وعلى أمثاله ومخططاتهم pic.twitter.com/bZEi9X4qEU
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 27, 2025
In a statement on Saturday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed hope that “this painful anniversary will serve as a rallying point, reinforcing the belief that Lebanon’s salvation lies in having one unified state, one army and constitutional institutions that protect sovereignty and uphold dignity.”
Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji said on Sept. 9 that the country’s armed forces will have fully disarmed Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon within three months.
“Peace between Israel and Lebanon is possible as well. I call on the Lebanese government to also begin direct negotiations with Israel. I commend it for its declared aim to disarm Hezbollah. But we need more than words. If Lebanon takes genuine and sustained action to disarm Hezbollah, I am sure we can achieve a sustainable peace,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday at the 80th annual session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
“Of course, until that happens, we will take whatever action we need to defend ourselves and to maintain the conditions of the ceasefire that was established in Lebanon,” the premier continued. “Our goal is not merely to monitor Hezbollah’s actions, but to prevent them from violating the ceasefire and attacking us at any time. I’m sure that if the Lebanese government persists in its goal of disarming Hezbollah, peace will come very speedily and very readily.”
Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, on Friday striking a precision weapons manufacturing facility in the Beqaa Valley, located approximately 20 miles east of Beirut.
The situation in Lebanon remains volatile following the end of the truce with Beirut on Feb. 18. Hezbollah began launching missiles and drones at the Jewish state a day after the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023.
Although Jerusalem has withdrawn most of its ground forces since the war ended, it still controls five strategic sites in Southern Lebanon. Israeli officials have stated that the IDF will retain these positions until the Lebanese army demonstrates it can maintain security.
