U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus during a meeting in Beirut on April 5, 2025. (Credit: Ibrahim Amro / AFP)
U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus expressed a “yawn” after Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem’s rejection of political statements regarding the “disarmament” of his party, while he advocated for a “dialogue on a national defense strategy” in his speech on Friday evening.
“Yawn,” she wrote on X, reposting a message from an Israeli citizen and activist based in New York, which referenced Naim Qassem’s remarks.
The U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East recently remarked that “Hezbollah is like a cancer that must be eradicated if Lebanon is to heal.” She made these comments after her visit to Lebanon on the weekend of April 6, during which she surprised her interlocutors with her relatively moderate tone.
Reactions to Naim Qassem’s speech in Lebanon
Naim Qassem’s remarks also sparked a response from politician Fares Souhaid, who expressed, also on X, that “Hezbollah is setting the bar very high regarding weapons. This ensures the existence of an internal conflict and escalation.”
Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces (FL), the party that strongly demands Hezbollah’s disarmament, also responded to Naim Qassem’s remarks. “In recent days, some are insisting on returning to the logic of threats, particularly about hands being cut off: this is neither a logic of the state nor a democratic one,” he emphasized, without directly mentioning the Hezbollah leader. “Those who resort to this logic should allow the new government to pull the country out of the tragedy they have plunged it into.”
Former President Michel Sleiman, without directly mentioning Naim Qassem, criticized his statements, rejecting “threats of cutting hands, insinuations about a new civil war, and speeches about the weakness of the army.” This came after the Hezbollah leader justified the continuation of the “resistance’s” weapons by citing the “inability of the state” to confront Israel’s expansionist aims. “No to weapons in the South, the Mountain, the Bekaa, the North and Beirut outside the framework of the State,” added the former president.
MP Fouad Makhzoumi, on his X account, stated that “Hezbollah’s positions provide Israel with a pretext to continue assassinations and weaken the Lebanese position, which is committed to the ceasefire agreement and international resolutions.” He further argued that “Hezbollah should have reached out for dialogue proposed by President Aoun and the government,” calling on the party to “return to the state and hand over its weapons to the army.”
President Joseph Aoun, who has made Hezbollah’s disarmament his key focus, is committed to ensuring the state’s right to hold the monopoly on weapons. Last Monday, he clarified that disarmament “will be done through dialogue [with the party] and without any resort to force.” He opposes the more confrontational approach advocated by Hezbollah’s adversaries, particularly the Lebanese Forces led by Samir Geagea, who demand a “disarmament timetable.”
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