Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, during an interview on the NBC channel. (Credit: NBC archive photo)
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said Wednesday in a statement that any negotiation "under fire" with Israel amounts to a "capitulation," and again condemned the Lebanese state's decision to enforce a monopoly on weapons as Israel continues its attacks on Lebanon.
At a time when the international community is applauding the Lebanese state's willingness to negotiate with Israel, Qassem declared that "when negotiations with the Israeli enemy are raised under fire, it is meant to impose capitulation and deprive Lebanon of all its capabilities."
"The very principle of negotiating is rejected with an enemy that occupies land and commits daily aggression," he added.
National unity
The head of Hezbollah in this context called for "national unity against the Israeli-American enemy, under a singular slogan at this stage: to stop the aggression in order to liberate the land and the people," stating that "all other subjects can be discussed afterwards."
"National unity means that the government should not make decisions that serve the Israeli project — even unintentionally — but whose result would be in favor of Israel. National unity means that the government revokes its decision to criminalize the actions of the resistance and its fighters," he continued, alluding to the Cabinet's March 2 decision to deem the group's military activities "illegal."
Qassem said that the launching of six rockets at Israel on March 2, two days after the start of the Israeli-American war against Iran, was "meant to respond to the aggression and defend Lebanon, depriving the Israeli enemy of the element of surprise and preventing it from isolating Lebanon, while refuting all pretexts, since a barrage of rockets does not justify a war."
"There is no war on behalf of others on Lebanese soil, but a war by Israel and the United States against Lebanon, in the face of which the resistance, the people, the army, men of honor, patriots and forces attached to the independence and liberation of Lebanon stand firm," he wrote.
Arms monopoly
Qassem also condemned the decision to monopolize weapons. The cleric considered that demanding a monopoly on weapons "to meet an Israeli demand while occupation and aggression persist constitutes a step toward the disappearance of Lebanon and the realization of the dream of 'Greater Israel'."
According to him, "it is no longer hidden from anyone that there exists a dangerous American-Israeli project, that of 'Greater Israel,' based on occupation and expansion from the Euphrates to the Nile, including Lebanon."
"We are faced with two options: either capitulation and abandoning the land, dignity, sovereignty and future of our generations, or inevitable confrontation and resistance to the occupation to prevent it from achieving its objectives," he added. "The young fighters ... are determined to carry on without limit and ready to sacrifice without reservation," he said.
"The people of the resistance ... have mobilized to contribute to the jihad, have endured as sacrifices and fighters, have offered their children with pride and satisfaction, and have suffered, away from their homes and normal lives, the greatest hardships to build a free and dignified future for their country and their children," continued the head of the group.
Since the beginning of March, Israel has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, and more than a million people have been forcibly displaced by Israeli threats and bombings.
