Hezbollah supporters protest in Beirut against negotiations with Israel

BEIRUT — Hundreds of supporters of Hezbollah, the Amal movement, and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP, close to the former Bashar al-Assad regime), many of them young people, gathered this afternoon in Hamra and other neighborhoods of Beirut to protest against the Lebanese authorities’ decision to engage in direct negotiations with Israel. Talks are set to begin next week in Washington, following deadly strikes on Beirut that threatened to weaken the regional truce with Iran.

Some protesters carried flags of Hezbollah, Amal, the SSNP, or Iran, while others held portraits former Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, assassinated on Sept.27, 2024, in an Israeli strike. According to a protester who asked to remain anonymous, the march was organized by Hezbollah and Amal, said our on-site journalist Tasnim Chaaban.

Initially, the crowd appeared to consist of one car and about twenty motorcycles, with two passengers per vehicle or roughly a hundred participants. Gradually, however, residents came out to join the procession, our journalist notes.

From an apartment, someone threw rice as a sign of support. Further along, a resident made an obscene gesture at the procession, expressing disapproval. Arguments immediately broke out, accompanied by chants in support of the Shiite community (“Shiites, Shiites!”), leading to verbal altercations.

The man was quickly removed, and the procession continued under the watch of the Lebanese Army.

Meanwhile, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA), a large group of protesters also took part in a gathering at Riad al-Solh Square in downtown Beirut to denounce the massacres committed by Israel against civilians. On Friday, thirteen members of State Security were killed in a strike in Nabatieh. Protesters held signs reading: “If there is a reason or a justification for the massacres, what is the reason for the strike on the Nabatieh Serail and the martyrdom of State Security personnel?”

A week after Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into war on March 2, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said he was in favor of “direct negotiations under international sponsorship” between the two countries, which have been technically at war for decades. But it was only on Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had ordered his cabinet to engage in “direct negotiations” with Lebanon “as soon as possible.”

An initial meeting is already scheduled for next Tuesday in Washington between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States, Yechiel Leiter and Nada Hamadeh Mouawad, respectively. Lebanon however says it wants a cease-fire beforehand, at least a temporary one. Meanwhile, in a statement read by a presenter on the Shiite movement’s channel, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem called on Lebanese officials to “stop making free concessions” to Israel in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which has dragged the whole country along with it. “The resistance will continue until our last breath,” he added.

The president of the Iranian Parliament on Friday demanded a truce in Lebanon and the unfreezing of his country’s assets before any peace negotiations with the United States, as talks are scheduled to take place Saturday in Pakistan. “Two of the measures on which the parties have agreed must still be implemented: a cease-fire in Lebanon and the unfreezing of Iran’s assets before the start of negotiations,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote in English on his X account. “These two issues must be resolved before negotiations begin.” Discussions are planned in Pakistan between Iran and the United States to try to reach an agreement to end the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28, beyond the two-week truce that took effect Wednesday.