Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem delivered a defiant Ashura speech Friday, demanding Israel's unconditional withdrawal from all Lebanese territory and lavishing praise on Iran while warning there would be no normalization with the Jewish state, according to Lebanese media reports.
Speaking to mark the Shiite commemoration of Ashura, Qassem framed Israel's continued presence in southern Lebanon not as a response to Hezbollah's rocket fire, as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued, but as part of what he called Israeli territorial ambitions. "Israel is in Lebanon because it wants to occupy it as part of 'Greater Israel,'" he said, adding that armed resistance had emerged as a response to what he characterized as "aggression and occupation".
The remarks came as U.S.-brokered negotiations between Israel and Lebanon continue in Washington, with Jerusalem expressing concern that any emerging agreement could entrench Iranian influence in the region.
Qassem offered effusive praise for Tehran, crediting Iran with achieving a "memorandum of understanding" that he described as a de facto admission of defeat by the United States and Israel. "Iran stood firm and succeeded," he said. "Today, Iran is shaping the future, not only for itself but for the entire region."
On the question of Israeli withdrawal, Qassem was unambiguous: Israel must pull back from every centimeter of Lebanese soil and cease all air, land, and sea strikes without preconditions. "Any commitment against Lebanese sovereignty will not be accepted, and no one has the right to sign anything," he said, a pointed reference to negotiations that, according to Israeli reports, envision an initial pilot withdrawal from a limited strip of territory.
He also turned his fire on Lebanon's own government, warning that Beirut could not remain in conflict with more than half its own population, and called on Lebanese authorities to stop acting, as he put it, in the interests of Washington and Jerusalem. The remarks landed as a direct rebuke of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who recently accused Hezbollah of dragging the country to war, calling those who do so "traitors."
Qassem closed with a message calibrated as both an olive branch and a warning to the Lebanese government: "We are ready and we are extending our hand. Seize the opportunity, because the resistance is strong."
