In a televised address Wednesday afternoon, new Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflict against the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group was still possible, but only once Israel puts end of its operation in Lebanon.
In his second televised speech since taking over as leader of Hezbollah following Israel’s elimination of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in September, Qassem said the war would only end when Israel ceased its “aggression” against Lebanon, and that only then would the terrorist group accept indirect negotiations, under the mediation of its ally Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese Parliament.
“I tell you very clearly, our conviction is that only one thing can stop this war of aggression, and that is the battlefield,” Qassem said during his pre-recorded speech. He added that he did not believe “political action” would end the conflict which has lasted for more than a year.
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“When the enemy decides to stop the aggression, there will be a path for talks that we have clearly defined – indirect negotiations through the Lebanese state and President Berri,” Qassem continued. He added that these negotiations could only take place if they guaranteed “the protection of Lebanese sovereignty in its entirety, without omitting anything”, but he did not provide further details.
Qassem said Hezbollah has been waging a defensive war of attrition and preparing for a protracted confrontation since the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
“We have tens of thousands of fighters [terroristes] jihadists trained in resistance [le mot fait aussi référence à l’idéologie des groupes terroristes islamistes anti-Israël] who are ready to die as martyrs,” he said, reinforced by their Islamic ideology, their training and their weapons, and no place in Israel will be excluded from the attacks that will be carried out by the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group.
Debris from an intercepted Hezbollah rocket that hit an empty parked car in Raanana on November 6, 2024. (Credit: Magen David Adom)
In response to Israeli “aggression,” Qassem said that Hezbollah will continue to fire rockets and drones into Israel, and that the launches in recent days are only a taste of what is to come.
Before and during the broadcast of Qassem’s speech, long-range rockets from Lebanon targeted central Israel, setting off warning sirens in a wide range of towns and villages around Tel Aviv, causing damage and no injuries. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 120 Hezbollah rockets had been fired at Israel during the day, according to the IDF.
The new Hezbollah leader accused Israel of seeking to defeat the terrorist group as a first step in conquering Lebanon, and subsequently “changing the map of the Middle East.”
Hezbollah began the war on the northern front in October 2023, in the wake of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ pogrom on October 7 in southern Israel, attacking the Jewish state with rockets, drones and missiles on an almost daily basis since.
Last September, Israel launched a massive operation against the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group, eliminating most of its senior leaders followed by a ground operation to rid southern Lebanon of the vast terrorist infrastructure that Hezbollah has established there. over the last twenty years.
Addressing the heavy toll the war has taken on the Lebanese civilian population, Qassem said it was the “price to pay for victory” and denied there was friction between displaced Shiites and other communities. inside Lebanon, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Over the past year, more than 3,000 other deaths have been reported in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists – the vast majority in the last six weeks.
Faced with the escalation, Hezbollah seems to have stopped naming its eliminated elements. The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed over the past year.
Searching for victims, rescue workers use excavators to remove rubble from a destroyed building that was hit on the evening of November 5 by an Israeli airstrike, in Barja, Lebanon, November 6, 2024. (Hassan Ammar/AP)
So far, border clashes have caused the deaths of 40 civilians on the Israeli side, as well as 61 Israeli army soldiers and reservists.
Qassem also commented on the capture of a Hezbollah naval commander in northern Lebanon by the Israeli Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit last week. He described this capture as a “humiliation” for Lebanon and demanded explanations from the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and UNIFIL, in particular from the German contingent, which provides a naval patrol.
Hezbollah leader, who recorded his speech before the US election result was announced, said the vote results would have no bearing on a possible ceasefire deal to end the war in progress.
“We do not base our expectations of a cessation of aggression on political developments… That [Kamala] Harris wins or [Donald] Trump wins, that means nothing to us,” he said.
“What will stop this war is the battlefield. »
