Qassem stresses role of govt. and army, questions 'step-for-step' approach

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Monday called on the government to “hold intensive sessions to discuss how to regain sovereignty through diplomacy, equipping the army and a defense strategy.”

“If we want to solve our problems in Lebanon, the start should be halting the aggression, Israel’s withdrawal, reconstruction and releasing the captives, and the government today is responsible for devising a plan for achieving this sovereignty,” said Qassem in a televised speech commemorating late religious scholar Sheikh Abbas Ali al-Moussawi.

Noting that “the resistance is not an alternative to the army, but it rather supports it,” Qassem emphasized that the army “remains the party that is primarily responsible for defending the country.”

“Resistance does not prevent aggression, it rather confronts it,” he pointed out.

He added that the government’s latest decisions on disarming Hezbollah and all armed groups had “violated the National Pact,” stating that “if the government continues with this format, it will not be entrusted with Lebanon's sovereignty.” Accordingly, Qassem again called on the government to reverse its decisions.

“Israel might occupy, kill and destroy, but we will confront it so that it doesn’t stay, and we are capable of that,” Qassem suggested.

“The resistance’s job is now more important and Israel will not manage to stay in Lebanon,” he added.

Commenting on the diplomatic efforts of U.S. envoys Tom Barrack and Morgan Ortagus, Qassem said “the U.S. moves we’re witnessing are moves aimed at ruining Lebanon and a call for strife.”

“We will not give up the arms that dignified us and protected us against aggression, seeing as these arms are our soul, honor and our children’s future,” he vowed.

“The roadmap should be expelling the occupation, halting the aggression, returning the captives and rebuilding the South, after which we would discuss the defense strategy,” Qassem added.

“Those who want to remove these arms want to remove our souls. The world will then see our might and we cannot be humiliated,” Hezbollah’s leader warned.

As for the calls for endorsing a “step-for-step” approach between Lebanon and Israel, Qassem said: “Some have asked us to make the first step, but isn’t everything we have done over the past eight months and everything we offered in the South a step?”

“The Israeli enemy and America cannot be trusted. That’s why there should not be a step for step nor all this course that calls for concessions. Let them implement the agreement and what they have to do after which we discuss the defense strategy,” Qassem added.

The Lebanese government had on August 5 tasked the army with preparing a plan for the removal of weapons and presenting it to Cabinet prior to August 31, with an ultimate goal of completing the disarmament plan by year end.

Hezbollah has rejected the government’s decisions and said it will deal with them as if they do not exist.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he welcomes the Lebanese cabinet's "momentous decision," adding that if Lebanon takes the necessary steps to disarm Hezbollah, then Israel will respond with reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction of the Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon.

Since the Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss its disarmament until Israel withdraws from five hills it controls inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes that have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members.

Lebanon is under U.S. pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened, with many of its political and military leaders dead.