Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem declared Wednesday in a televised speech that negotiating with Israel "under fire" amounted to imposed surrender, calling for unity and vowing his fighters were prepared to continue "without limits."
Naim Qassem © Mena Today
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem declared Wednesday in a televised speech that negotiating with Israel "under fire" amounted to imposed surrender, calling for unity and vowing his fighters were prepared to continue "without limits."
Strong words. But they come with a critical caveat: the Lebanese government has formally banned Hezbollah from any military activity on Lebanese soil. Qassem is not speaking as a state actor, he is speaking as the head of a terrorist organization openly defying his own country's authorities.
Hezbollah is not an independent force. It is financed, trained, armed and directed by Iran, which ordered the group to attack Israel on March 2nd. What Qassem presents as resistance is in reality a proxy war fought on Lebanese territory, at Lebanon's expense, for Tehran's strategic interests.
As Iran's own leadership fractures under the pressure of war and internal power struggles, Hezbollah's defiant posturing looks increasingly like a cornered actor playing out a script written in Tehran, whether Lebanon wants it or not.
The Lebanese people deserve better than a militia that wages wars they never voted for, on orders from a foreign power.
Iran has warned the United States that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli offensive on a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon where Iranian military personnel are holed up alongside Hezbollah fighters, three officials briefed on the message told Reuters.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the renewed U.S. campaign against Iran would not continue for "too long" after the biggest exchange of fire between Tehran and Washington since July.
Top aides to President Donald Trump are pushing to keep the Iran war from escalating before November's midterm elections to staunch Republican electoral losses, four people familiar with the discussions said, a strategy already under strain as the U.S. and Iran exchanged back-and-forth attacks overnight.
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