Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem during a televised speech on Dec. 14, 2024. (Credit: Al-Manar/Reuters)
After Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem on Wednesday called on the Lebanese state to “prove itself” in order to confront Israel politically, Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea retorted that the Shiite party “has a majority in the government” and must therefore take the “appropriate stance” itself.
Speaking via video at a conference in Tehran, Qassem denounced the “massive Israeli aggression” launched on Sept. 23, a few days after the Hezbollah pager explosions, and marked, in its first week, by the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah. This “murderous campaign has weakened the capabilities of the resistance, attacked civilians and killed women and children,” stressed the Shiite party leader. However, he hailed the fact that a “popular momentum” had been built up around the “resistance,” as Hezbollah calls itself, which had had a “significant impact.”
Believing that it was this momentum that led to the cease-fire agreement, which came into force on Nov. 27, he declared that the Lebanese state was now “directly responsible” for monitoring the agreement's implementation. “This new phase, the post-agreement period, requires the Lebanese state, the guarantor countries and the monitoring committee of this agreement to ensure that Israel leaves Lebanon,” he stressed, recalling that Israel continues to violate the cease-fire provisions with "hundreds of attacks."
Intensifying political pressure
“Hezbollah has decided to give the state a chance and let it assume its responsibilities,” continued the Hezbollah leader, saying he considered that "any attack" by Israel is ”directed against the state, against the international community and against the guarantors of the agreement. It is their responsibility, and they must assume it fully,” he insisted. “During this period, we are patient and do not want to take any action that would force us to take direct responsibility for events that should be dealt with collectively,” he said.
On Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas attack and the start of the Israeli army's deadly offensive on Gaza, Hezbollah fired the first shells towards Israel, opening a “support front” for the Palestinian enclave.
He considered it necessary to “intensify political pressure” to put an end to Israeli movements in southern Lebanon and to the strikes that have killed at least 36 people since the end of November. Qassem stressed that while “thanks to the resistance,” Israel had not been able to advance in the border region, where the Shiite party had clashed violently with the Israeli army in several villages, such as Khiam and Shamaa, “it is now the opportunity for the Lebanese state to prove itself and position itself on the political terrain.”
The right position
Reacting to these statements by the Hezbollah leader, Samir Geagea replied on X on Thursday morning: “Sheikh Naim, you are the state from now on.” “You have a large majority in the government, so take the right position,” he added. Last weekend, Geagea had already said that enforcing the cease-fire agreement was a “responsibility of the outgoing government” of Najib Mikati, “controlled by Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah and its allies, the Amal movement, the Maradas and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, have eight ministers in the caretaking government, out of a total of 24. The other 16 ministries are held in equal shares by eight ministers close to the camp of former president Michel Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement party, a former ally of Hezbollah, and by eight Sunni ministers and ministers from the Progressive Socialist Party.