Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem during his Dec. 14 speech. (Screenshot)
Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem announced on Saturday his party's program for the upcoming phase in Lebanon, stressing the need to implement the cease-fire with Israel south of the Litani, elect a president to end more than two years of vacancy, strengthen the Lebanese army and discuss the defense strategy.
Hezbollah's agenda for the next phase in Lebanon is "the implementation of the agreement south of the Litani River, reconstruction, the election of a head of state on Jan. 9, and positive dialogue on the problematic issues," the party's leader said in a speech broadcast on al-Manar TV. He stressed the need to "unify Lebanon's position in the face of the Israeli occupation of the country, discuss ways to strengthen the army and the defense strategy in Lebanon."
"The enemy realized that the horizon was blocked in the fight against the resistance and therefore turned to an agreement [of cease-fire] to put an end to its aggression," Qassem added. According to him, this agreement "aims to stop the aggression, not the resistance, and is limited to the south of the Litani."
He also stated that Hezbollah remained "patient in the face of hundreds of Israeli violations in order not to be an obstacle to the agreement and to make the people concerned face their responsibilities."
"We follow what is happening and act according to our assessment of what is in our interest," he continued.
'Nothing to do with supporting Gaza'
Qassem added that, before the start of the full-scale war, Hezbollah "expected the Israeli aggression against Lebanon to take place at any moment, but we did not know the timing that Israel would choose."
According to him, this aggression "has nothing to do with supporting Gaza, but rather with the expansionist project" of Israel. He denounced the fact that Israel wanted to "eliminate any resistance that opposes its expansion project in the region."
For the Hezbollah leader, Israel did not achieve its objectives in "its war against Lebanon."
"Our fighters prevented the Israeli forces from advancing towards our territory, killing and wounding hundreds of their soldiers. We have thwarted the enemy's goal of eliminating and crushing the Resistance," he said, noting that "we have prevented the enemy from establishing the new Middle East, with Lebanon as its gateway."
Qassem also stressed that "Hezbollah is strong, is recovering and will continue to act."
"We protected Lebanon because the last aggression was against Lebanon, even if it targeted us directly," he said. "We do not know how long the resistance will last to bring down Israel. It wins and loses sometimes. This is normal. What matters is that it continues, even if its capabilities are limited," he added.
Relations with Syria
In his first televised address since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, whom his party supported militarily during more than a decade of conflict in Syria, the Hezbollah leader expressed hope that the new regime would not "normalize" its relations with Israel.
"We supported Syria because it helped strengthen the capacities of the Resistance across its territory towards Lebanon and Palestine. Today, the regime has fallen. We can only judge the new forces when they take clear positions and the situation normalizes in Syria," he explained. Our relationship with Syria will depend on that, he noted.
He also admitted that "Hezbollah has lost the military supply route through Syria," but he added that "this is a small detail that can change over time."
"This route can be restored with the new regime, just as we can find new ways," he stated. The leader finally said that what is happening in Syria will not impact Lebanon.