Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem speaking on May 12, 2025. (Screenshot from al-Manar broadcast)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem called President Joseph Aoun's mandate "a bearer of hope," during a speech given Monday evening, positioning his party as an integral part of Aoun's six-year term, which began in January.
Calling to mind the role Hezbollah played — alongside its ally, the Amal Movement — in Aoun's election, Qassem emphasized that the state "cannot move forward" without the party, which, following a 13-month war that left it severely weakened, is now the focus of intense discussions regarding its disarmament, not only south of the Litani river, as stipulated by the cease-fire deal that ended the war, but throughout the country.
Qassem, whose predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated in September, called for a consensus within Lebanon's various political actors on the issue of Hezbollah's weapons.
"Since 1982, the Resistance has prevented Israel from nibbling away at Lebanese land," Qassem said. "If Israel had been able to gradually nibble away a part of Lebanon every few years, where would the country be today?"
"The Resistance prevented Israel from imposing humiliating agreements on Lebanon," he continued, " from extorting what it wanted and from implementing its plans. We are continuing the resistance to defend Lebanon and its people."
"You have not succeeded in removing us from the equation, and you will not succeed. You will not achieve through pressure what you failed to achieve through war."
Still, Qassem did not close the door entirely on the possibility of his party disarming. "Israel must respect its obligations under the agreement, and we will agree internally," he said, adding, "Lebanon is moving toward stability, and the Israeli entity is the one standing in the way of that stability."
According to Qassem, Lebanon has "three priorities": the first, "to end Israeli aggression, to liberate the still-occupied territories and prisoners," for which, "the state must exert pressures"; the second, "reconstruction of areas destroyed by the war"; and third, the state's development "economically and socially."
It's not the first time Hezbollah has called on the state for reconstruction of areas damaged by Israel's extensive bombing campaign and subsequent on-the-ground demolition operations, carried out largely after the cease-fire. In late April, Qassem called on the state to tap into “internal resources” to aid in launching the rebuilding of destroyed homes and infrastructure, framing the delay in the project as part of a broader attempt to “marginalize” Lebanon's Shiite community.
Overall damages from the war are estimated to come to approximately $11 billion, a figure hardly attainable without international aid.
Elections and the Arab return
Qassem mentioned the ongoing municipal elections, held sequentially, with a different governorate each week. So far, Mount Lebanon, North Lebanon and Akkar governorates have cast their ballots. The elections, the first in nine years, "showed the enthusiasm of the Lebanese for building the state," Qassem said, indicating that his party had collaborated with the Amal Movement to secure victories in several localities.
As the United Arab Emirates lifts the travel ban on Lebanon and Aoun returns from an official visit to Kuwait, where he discussed Kuwaiti investment in Lebanon, Qassem echoed the government's optimism, saying he too had a desire for "the return of Arab countries to Lebanon."
The Lebanese government has experienced a series of diplomatic crises in recent years, especially since 2021, as relations with Gulf countries cooled, and at times froze over, due to the oil monarchies' disapproval of Hezbollah's (and Iran's) influence in Lebanese politics. Hezbollah's weakening since the war has changed this dynamic and reignited diplomatic dialogue.
'We want a united Syria'
Qassem's speech was delivered on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of the death of Moustafa Badreddine, assassinated on May 13, 2016, in an explosion near Damascus International Airport. Badreddine was Hezbollah’s military chief in Syria and one of the five party members accused by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005 — even being described as the “mastermind” of this attack.
Hezbollah's military support for the now-fallen Assad regime in Syria has made it an adversary of the country's new government, under Ahmad al-Sharaa. However, echoing Sharaa's own discourse on a new Syria without sectarian violence, Qassam said, "We want a united Syria, for all its children, far from attacks against the Druze or Alawite minorities."
In recent months, both these communities were victims of massacres, and Israel has recently intensified its strikes in Syria, claiming support for Syria's Druze, which has, in turn, largely rejected any Israeli involvement.
"We have a lot of hope for the Syrian people," Qassem said. "These are a people who will prevent Israel from achieving its goals in Syria." The Hezbollah leader "strongly" condemned "the repeated Israeli aggressions" against Syria, which included a bombing not far from the presidential palace in Damascus.
Qassem denounced the "Israeli project in the region," more broadly, and its "objective to create a colonial domination, aimed at expanding its territory and transforming the Middle East."
"Israel has tried to nibble away at Palestine and has never retreated in any of the territories, except thanks to Resistance," he said. "Its aim was to increase land confiscation to achieve total and complete expansion."
Qassem believes Hamas "succeeded in leading al-Aqsa Flood operation" against southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, "exposing and revealing this usurping entity that works to kill humans, execute life, and kill children."
The Israeli government has insisted it will not end its military onslaught on Gaza until it has destroyed Hamas, a goal which, despite flattening most of the enclave and killing over 52,000 people, observers say is unlikely to be achieved any time soon.
"They want to end the resistance in Gaza," he said, "but they have not been able to achieve this objective. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu wants to destroy life in occupied Palestine, and in Gaza in particular, to end the Resistance, but he has not been able and will not be able, because the Palestinian people are a resistant and legitimate holder of the right. It is impossible that Netanyahu, even if the entire world joined him, could deprive the Palestinians of their land and their right."
