Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem on Monday urged Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to reverse his decision to outlaw the Iranian-backed terrorist group, which he described as “stabbing the resistance in the back.”
Qassem addressed supporters in a prerecorded statement ahead of historic direct talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials in Washington, D.C., which are set to take place on Tuesday, April 14.
“Israel and the United States have openly stated they want to strengthen the army to disarm Hezbollah, fight it, dismantle its institutions and eliminate the resistance, its people and all who support it,” Qassem said, according to a translation by Iran’s Press TV propaganda outlet. “They want the [Lebanese] army to fight its own people—something the army cannot and will not do.”
Hezbollah “will neither calm down nor surrender, and the battlefield will speak,” he warned, calling on Aoun to “confront the [Israeli] aggression together; afterward, we can agree on the future.”
Rejecting negotiations with Jerusalem as “futile and humiliating,” Qassem said his terror group would “remain steadfast, keep our heads held high and liberate the land.”
An anonymous Lebanese official told the country’s anti-Hezbollah daily Nida Al-Watan on Monday that Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam “succeeded in separating the Lebanese issue from the Iranian one, preventing their fates from being intertwined.”
“Iran will not be allowed to intervene and regain control of the situation in Lebanon,” the official said, adding that Tuesday’s meeting would be focused on “the need for a ceasefire before the start of talks, a condition Lebanon has set without receiving an Israeli response so far.”
According to local reports, Lebanese security forces are on high alert, especially in Beirut and the Mount Lebanon Governorate, and are monitoring possible friction in response to the negotiations.
A U.S. State Department official confirmed on Monday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will participate in the talks with Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, and Nada Hamadeh, the Lebanese envoy in Washington. Michel Issa, U.S. envoy to Lebanon, and Michael Needham, State Department counselor, are also scheduled to attend.
“As a direct result of Hezbollah’s reckless actions, the Israeli and Lebanese governments are engaging in open, direct, high-level diplomatic talks—the first such talks since 1993—brokered by the United States,” the official said.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and suicide drones at Israel on March 2, following the Jewish state’s targeted killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei was killed in the opening strikes of the war.
In response to the terrorist organization’s violation of the U.S.-brokered Nov. 27, 2024, truce agreement, Jerusalem launched an aerial campaign against Hezbollah and ordered Israel Defense Forces troops to advance and take control of additional areas in Southern Lebanon to halt cross-border attacks.
The Jewish state faults the Lebanese government for failing to live up to its pledge to finally disarm Hezbollah following Israeli actions that decimated the terror group’s command structure.
The dialogue on Tuesday is expected to focus on “how to ensure the long-term security of Israel’s northern border and to support the government of Lebanon’s determination to reclaim full sovereignty over its territory and political life,” according to the State Department official.
The official said that Israel is at war with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese state, “so there is no reason the two neighbors should not be talking.”
