People react as Hezbollah's Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, addresses the crowd via a giant screen during the first day of Ashura commemorations at the mausoleum of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on June 17, 2026. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem raised his tone Friday as he delivered a religious speech ahead of the Ashura celebrations.
He spoke of "Hezbollah's victory" against what he described as an "American-Israeli and international plot," in which he said the Lebanese state was used as a "cover." "The goal of this plan is to eliminate the resistance and its popular environment, and to completely erase its presence from Lebanon," he asserted.
In a speech peppered with religious references, the Hezbollah leader called on people to follow the "religious duty" of resistance and strongly defended his party's "victory," at a time when the Israeli army is expanding its "buffer zone" in southern Lebanon and the death toll from the Israeli offensive since early March has reached nearly 4,000.
'American-Israeli plot'
Qassem claimed that Hezbollah was experiencing "the most dangerous phase of its existence in Lebanon." "We are facing the most dangerous American-Israeli and international plot. We are facing what is most dangerous for our country, for the future of our children, and for our ideas," he said.
Within this context, he slammed the Lebanese state, which he said had been "the facade and the cover through which, in violation of the Constitution, all actions to confront the resistance and bring it down, whatever the cost, are being carried out." "The political authorities were asked to provide the necessary political cover," he asserted.
The Lebanese Army has been tasked with dismantling Hezbollah's arsenal in August 2025 by the Lebanese government, he claimed that this plan included an attempt to "provoke a confrontation between the army and the resistance."
"They worked hard at it. But thanks to the awareness of the army, its leaders, and the objective circumstances, this discord did not occur," he said. He also claimed that the proponents of this plan "prevented reconstruction so that residents would remain displaced and homeless, and the popular environment of the resistance would turn against it." "They imposed a total financial blockade to prevent us from recovering and rising again," he decried.
Qassem also mentioned "pressure on Syria to intervene from the East and to form a pincer movement with Israel from the North." U.S. President Donald Trump regularly hints at a possible intervention by Syria in Lebanon against Hezbollah, despite the outright refusal of its president, Ahmad al-Sharaa. "But, thanks to God, the Syrian regime did not respond to this call," he emphasized. In response to this "plan," Hezbollah's leader assured that his movement has "preserved the unity of the resistance forces, unity with the Amal Movement, as well as with all men of goodwill who stand with us."
'Religious duty'
Adopting a visibly defensive posture, Qassem also accused his detractors of "seeking to stir up people's anger so that they turn against us. But they will not turn against us." "Do not interpret victory according to their standards, which are those of military superiority," Qassem continued.
"Victory, according to our standards, is the victory of steadfastness and continuity. We are the victory. Through our existence, our narrative, our action, our resistance. As for them, they all embody defeat."
He further stated that "we must put an end to this obsession with convincing others." "The important thing is that we are convinced. We are convinced that we are victorious," he said, before calling on his supporters to fulfill their "religious duty" (taklif shari’i).
"This rule of religious duty is, in fact, the key to everything. You are not required to achieve victory with other people's tools, ideas, or beliefs. You are required to achieve victory through the project of Almighty God. In this project, the victor is the one who fulfills his duty," he explained. "If, deep down, you feel victorious, then you are truly victorious, even if mountains collapse on your head, because you are on the side of what is right," he declared.
He finally assured that the "Israeli project is today at its weakest point," and that "the Israeli will leave our land until the last inch." "Be certain that victory, in its concrete sense that will lead to the expulsion of the enemy from our territory, will come to pass," he concluded. After another day of deadly escalation, Israeli officials restated that the army of the Jewish state will remain present in the nearly 10 kilometers of depth it occupies in Lebanon.
