Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Wednesday that those demanding its disarmament were “serving” Israeli goals and accused US envoy Tom Barrack of “intimidating” Lebanon.
In a televised address marking the first anniversary of the targeted killing by Israel of senior commander Fuad Shukr, Qassem said “anyone calling today for the surrender of weapons, whether internally or externally, on the Arab or the international stage, is serving the Israeli project”.
He accused Barrack of using “intimidation and threats” with the aim of “aiding Israel”.
Shukr was the first senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel in cross-border exchanges that erupted after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Weeks after his death, the hostilities escalated into a full-blown war, which ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on November 27.
Under the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers as the only armed parties to its south.
Qassem said he considered the ceasefire agreement to apply “exclusively south of the Litani River”.
“However, if some link weapons to the agreement, I say to them: weapons are an internal Lebanese affair that has nothing to do… with the Israeli enemy.”
Washington has been ramping up pressure on Beirut to disarm Hezbollah, with Barrack making several visits for talks with Lebanese officials.
Under the truce deal, Israel was supposed to have withdrawn all of its troops from Lebanon but it has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.
Israel has also kept up its air strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon despite the ceasefire, threatening to continue them until the group has been disarmed.
“The imminent danger is the Israeli aggression… this aggression must stop,” Qassem said.
“All political discourse in the country must be directed toward stopping the aggression, not toward handing over weapons to Israel.”
A Lebanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that “Lebanese authorities are currently under international and regional pressure, with demands that they formally commit to disarming Hezbollah in a cabinet meeting”.
Lebanon’s demand that Israel complete its withdrawal before Hezbollah is disarmed was rejected by the United States, according to a Lebanese source with knowledge of the matter.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called a cabinet meeting for next week to discuss “the extension of state sovereignty over all its territories exclusively by its own forces”.
The meeting will also focus on “arrangements for the ceasefire… which include ideas from ambassador Barrack’s proposal regarding its implementation”.
Hezbollah insists Israel must halt its strikes and withdraw from the remaining positions it holds in the south before it will discuss the future of its weapons.
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© Agence France-Presse
