Qassem says ready to ‘cooperate on state’s monopoly on arms, but without diktats’

While reiterating there is “no other solution” than the Israeli army’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem on Tuesday appeared to signal openness toward the Lebanese state, which he spared his usual tirades this time.

Hezbollah would be “ready to cooperate on domestic issues, whether the state’s monopoly on arms, the economy or coexistence, but without American diktats or any other external control, and on the basis of the constitution and laws,” he said at the end of his speech.

U.S. Ambassador Michel Issa reportedly conveyed a message to the group last month that Israel could launch a ground offensive as far as Beirut if it refused to hand over its weapons.

The Hezbollah leader, for his part, had said his party “had nothing to offer” under occupation.

‘Israel cannot remain in south Lebanon indefinitely’

“Call on the [Israeli] enemy to withdraw so that a solution can be reached. As for being told to make concessions so that the enemy withdraws, we have nothing to offer, because we are victims of aggression and there are agreements that the enemy has not respected,” the leader said.

The framework agreement signed at the end of June between Beirut and Tel Aviv, which the Hezbollah secretary-general did not mention this time but has regularly criticized, provides for an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon alongside the militia’s disarmament.

“We see the liberation of southern Lebanon before our eyes, and Israel cannot remain in southern Lebanon indefinitely,” he said, remaining ambiguous about whether his group might resume attacks against the occupying forces.

Qassem said the “war is being fought in several rounds,” but that the final round would belong “to the landowners and those who hold the rights, as well as those who have followed the path of the fighters and martyrs.”

His remarks came as the Israeli army continued attacks it has carried out since mid-June without a response from Hezbollah. The leader reiterated: “The solution begins with the Israeli enemy’s departure in humiliation, along with the Americans who support its aggression with all their might. That is the solution for us, and do not ask us for any others.”

Against this backdrop, he welcomed the end of the U.S.-led anti-jihadist coalition’s mission in Iraq, announced last week. “The Iraqi people are, thank God, capable of driving out the occupiers, whoever they are and wherever they come from, so that Iraq will be independent, dignified and strong,” he said.

He saluted the “dear Iraqi people, their religious authority, their leaders, the Hashd al-Shaabi [an alliance of Iraqi armed groups including pro-Iranian factions], all the armed forces and all segments of Iraqi society, because they have succeeded in driving out the American occupier.”

On the eve of the Oct. 7 commemorations, he said “the sacrifices of the Palestinian people are immense,” but that “through their nobility and sacrifices, they will inevitably prevail.”

Qassem made the remarks at the launch of a “foundation for the preservation and dissemination of the legacy” of Hassan Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades. “We have before us an extremely important legacy. After this long period spanning decades, we need to gather, archive and make available to researchers and the public the wealth of material produced” by Nasrallah, he said.

The party’s former secretary-general was killed by Israel on Sept. 27, 2024, in a series of large-scale strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.