The leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, Naïm Qassem, pledged on Friday to cooperate with the Lebanese army, responsible for ensuring respect for the ceasefire with Israel, during his first intervention since the truce came into force Wednesday in Lebanon.
The truce, which ended more than a year of cross-border hostilities and two months of open war between the two belligerents, is already being tested: the Israeli army announced on Friday that it had carried out an air strike against the Pro-Iranian Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Coordination between the resistance and the Lebanese army will be at a high level to implement the terms of the agreement
ceasefire, sponsored by Washington and Paris, assured Naïm Qassem in a pre-recorded speech.
The plan calls for the withdrawal, within 60 days, of the Israeli army from southern Lebanon, where it entered on September 30, a week after launching a massive bombing campaign against Hezbollah.
Hezbollah must retreat to the north of the Litani River, around 30 km from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in the south, where only the Lebanese army and the Blue Helmets will be deployed.
The Hezbollah leader clarified that this is not a new agreement or treaty. It is, according to him, a program of implementing measures of Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
He insisted that this agreement will be executed under the sovereignty of Lebanon.
Let no one bank on problems or conflict
with the army, added the leader of Hezbollah who recently succeeded Hassan Nasrallah, killed by an Israeli strike at the end of September in his stronghold in southern Beirut.
The resistance will be ready to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of Lebanon’s weakness with our partners […] and first of all the army
he continued, pledging to contribute to strengthen Lebanon’s defensive capabilities
.
Great victory
Naïm Qassem also took advantage of a big victory
on Israel, prevented to destroy Hezbollah, and to annihilate the resistance or weaken it
. Weakened by the Israeli operation, which notably decimated its leadership, the movement armed and supported by Iran nevertheless remains a key player on the Lebanese political scene.
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The portraits of the former secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and his intended successor, Hachem Safieddine, who were killed at the end of September in an Israeli bombing in the southern suburbs of Beirut. (Archive photo)
Photo : Reuters / Mohamed Azakir
Recently, terrorist activities and the movement of a mobile rocket launcher were detected in southern Lebanon
the Israeli army had indicated earlier, publishing on X a video showing a strike on a slowly driving truck.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Thursday with a guerre intensive
in the event of a violation of the truce, after a first strike by the army on a facility used, according to it, by Hezbollah to store medium-range rockets.
The Lebanese army, which began deploying troops and armor in the south of the country, accused Israel on Thursday of having violated repeatedly
the agreement.
Israeli soldiers also opened fire Friday on residents of southern Lebanon during a funeral in a border village, according to the Lebanese news agency Ani.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army warned residents of Lebanon – 900,000 of whom have been displaced in 13 months of hostilities – returning home to the south to stay away from its positions. It imposed a nighttime curfew on Thursday throughout the sector south of the Litani, and extended it until Saturday morning.
Our support for Palestine will not stop
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country along with the United States provides support to the Lebanese army, called for the cessation immediate
of all actions that contravene
to implement the ceasefire during talks Thursday with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah.
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An injured woman on a stretcher after an Israeli attack on a school housing displaced people on November 7, 2024. (File photo)
Photo : Reuters / Mahmoud Issa
Our support for Palestine will not stop and will continue through different means
also assured the leader of Hezbollah, without further details.
Hezbollah had opened a front support
in Hamas against Israel at the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
The group previously claimed that it would only stop its attacks against Israel – which have displaced 60,000 residents in the north of the country – with the end of the war in Gaza.
According to Lebanese authorities, at least 3,961 people have been killed since October 2023, most since the end of September. On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians died in 13 months, according to the authorities.
