(Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP)
Hezbollah’s head on Thursday rejected a conditional ceasefire announced by Lebanese and Israeli envoys and instead demanded a comprehensive ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal.
Lebanese and Israeli representatives have agreed in the United States on a conditional ceasefire which pres. Joseph Aoun of Lebanon labeled as “the last chance to enter into a final, comprehensive ceasefire”.
However, Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s head, believes the agreement amounts to “surrender and defeat”.
“The ceasefire must be comprehensive…without the Israeli enemy having the freedom to kill,” Qassem said Thursday, urging the Lebanese government to stop “the farce and humiliation called direct talks” with Israel.
Envoys from Israel and Lebanon held a fourth round of US-mediated talks in Washington on Wednesday and agreed to implement a cease-fire that depends on the cessation of Hezbollah’s attacks.
“The results of the fourth round of negotiations and the statement issued as a result, which included many important points in Lebanon’s favor, represent the last chance to enter into a final, comprehensive ceasefire,” Aoun responded to the agreement.
“Each party bears responsibility if it does not respond positively,” he added.
Photo composite of Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump and Joseph Aoun. (Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP)
Aoun said Lebanon would inform the United States of its position “as soon as answers are received from the relevant internal parties, especially Hezbollah”.
However, Qassem made it clear that Hezbollah rejected the agreement and threatened Israel with more attacks.
The Hezbollah chief threatens that “as long as our towns are unsafe – bombed, destroyed and our people are killed – the settlements (Northern Israel) are unsafe”.
However, Qassem’s threats come after new Israeli attacks on Lebanon and new threats against Beirut by Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister.
Katz said on Thursday that the Israeli army would “continue its operations at this stage…without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure”.
Israeli forces also retain the “freedom of action, with US support, to attack in Beirut in response to (Lebanese attacks on) Israeli communities and territory,” Katz added.
A Hezbollah official told AFP on condition of anonymity on Thursday that the militant group had already notified the Lebanese government of its rejection of the ceasefire agreement.
Hezbollah is Lebanon’s only militant group that refused to surrender its arsenal after the 1975–1990 civil war, arguing that it was fighting Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon.