Hezbollah's Secretary-General Naim Qassem accused the Lebanese state of choosing a path that dishonors Lebanon and said the ongoing talks betray the right to prosecution.
Naim Qassem delivered the remarks on Friday in a televised speech marking the birth of the Prophet Muhammad and the Islamic Unity Week. He said the region was undergoing a historic restructuring of power balances in the face of what he described as extraordinary events.
The Hezbollah leader claimed the United States was laying ground to expand control and prepare conditions for what he called Greater Israel, while positioning the Islamic Republic's axis and the resistance movements across Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen in opposition to this project.
Qassem said the enemy had deployed various means in the regional confrontations, but that Hezbollah had made great sacrifices without losing. He stated: Loss occurs only when we surrender.
Turning to domestic affairs, Qassem escalated his criticism of the Lebanese state, saying it had chosen a course that does not honor Lebanon or itself. He criticized the results of the path the government adopted, saying the state had brought neither a ceasefire nor a withdrawal but instead surrendered the right to prosecution.
Those who participated in the resistance bear no responsibility for these concessions and their results, Qassem said. He attributed responsibility to the parties that chose this path, accusing them of giving away state sovereignty.
Qassem directed sharp criticism at the ongoing negotiations, calling them talks conducted under war that give legitimacy to war and lean toward Israel.
The Hezbollah leader renewed the party's commitment to the November 27, 2024 agreement concluded under UN Security Council Resolution 1701. He stressed categorical rejection of what he called the framework agreement, the experimental zones, and the joint verification committees, characterizing these proposals as illegitimate, unlawful and aimed at imposing guardianship and destroying what remains of Lebanese sovereignty.
On the regional level, Qassem said the Middle East was witnessing a historic restructuring and a fateful confrontation between two currents: American and Western arrogance alongside Israel, and the resistance axis stretching across Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen and Iraq. He said Israel, despite committing the worst genocide and destruction, had not achieved its strategic objectives, insisting that the great sacrifices of the region's peoples halted this aggression.
