{"id":2387,"date":"2025-08-25T17:35:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/08\/25\/hezbollah-chief-rejects-disarmament-demands-israel-comply-with-ceasefire\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T17:35:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:35:25","slug":"hezbollah-chief-rejects-disarmament-demands-israel-comply-with-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/08\/25\/hezbollah-chief-rejects-disarmament-demands-israel-comply-with-ceasefire\/","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah chief rejects disarmament, demands Israel comply with ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Naim Qassem says group will not abandon weapons \u2018that protect us from our enemy\u2019, insists on end to Israeli attacks.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has rejected growing pressure to disarm the group<\/a>, warning that Lebanon\u2019s sovereignty could only be achieved by ending Israeli \u201caggression\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Monday from Beirut, Qassem said the Lebanese government must first ensure Israel complies with a November 2024 ceasefire agreement before talks on a national defence strategy can take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resistance will remain as a strong barrier preventing Israel from achieving its goals, and Israel will not be able to remain in Lebanon or achieve its expansionist project through Lebanon,\u201d the Hezbollah chief said.<\/p>\n

He dismissed Lebanese government and foreign proposals to integrate Hezbollah\u2019s arsenal into a national defence strategy, insisting that Israel must first withdraw from Lebanese territory, release prisoners, and halt attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you truly want sovereignty, then stop the aggression. We will not abandon the weapons that honour us, nor the weapons that protect us from our enemy,\u201d Qassem said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this government continues in its current form, it cannot be trusted to safeguard Lebanon\u2019s sovereignty,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Lebanese Council of Ministers approved a resolution tasking the army with formulating a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The decree was in accordance with a United States initiative that includes vague promises that Israel would end its occupation of parts of south Lebanon and daily attacks on the country if Hezbollah\u2019s weapons are removed.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah has said it will treat<\/a>\u00a0the decision \u201cas if it doesn\u2019t exist\u201d.<\/p>\n

Qassem\u2019s comments came as Israel said it would consider scaling back its military presence in southern Lebanon if Beirut\u2019s armed forces moved to seize Hezbollah\u2019s weapons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office announced Monday that Israel was ready to support Lebanon\u2019s cabinet decision tasking the army with a disarmament plan by year-end.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Lebanese Armed Forces take the necessary steps to implement the disarmament of Hezbollah, Israel will engage in reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction\u201d by the Israeli military, the Israeli prime minister\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

The Israeli announcement came a day after Netanyahu met with US envoy Tom Barrack, who has been heavily involved in a plan that would disarm Hezbollah and withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u2018Step-by-step\u2019<\/h2>\n

Barrack called on Israel to honour commitments under a ceasefire with Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a step-by-step approach but I think the Lebanese government has done their part. They\u2019ve taken the first step. Now what we need is Israel to comply,\u201d Barrack said during meetings with Lebanese officials in Beirut last week.<\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s official National News Agency on Monday reported US deputy envoy Morgan Ortagus had arrived in Beirut before planned meetings with officials.<\/p>\n

Israel still occupies five positions in southern Lebanon, despite a US-brokered ceasefire last November. It was to withdraw its forces within two months, and Lebanon\u2019s armed forces were to take control of the country\u2019s south, territory that has long been a stronghold for Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces have continued to carry out air attacks across Lebanon in near-daily violations of the November truce, causing deaths and injuries among civilians, including Syrian refugees, and destruction of properties and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In the latest Israeli aggression, one person was killed in a drone attack in southern Lebanon. Lebanon\u2019s Ministry of Public Health said the drone hit a pick-up truck on the Ain al-Mazrab-Tebnine road in the Bint Jbeil district.<\/p>\n

Later on Monday, the Israeli military claimed in a statement it had killed a Hezbollah member and would \u201ccontinue to operate to remove threats posed to the citizens of Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah, the only faction that kept its weapons after Lebanon\u2019s 1975-1990 civil war, emerged badly weakened from last year\u2019s war with Israel, with the assassination of senior leaders, including former chief Hassan Nasrallah<\/a>, thousands of its fighters and Lebanese civilians killed, and tens of thousands of the Shia and other communities displaced from their destroyed homes.<\/p>\n

The latest developments come as the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote Monday on extending the mandate of UNIFIL, the international peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, until August 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/p>\n

Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naim Qassem says group will not abandon weapons \u2018that protect us from our enemy\u2019, insists on end to Israeli attacks. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has rejected growing pressure to disarm the group, warning that Lebanon\u2019s sovereignty could only be achieved by ending Israeli \u201caggression\u201d. Speaking on Monday from Beirut, Qassem said the Lebanese government must … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}