Hezbollah will fight any future US-Israeli 'collaborator army', Fadlallah says

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah warned Tuesday that his group would fight any army unit formed by the U.S. and Israel to counter the resistance.

"If Israel and the U.S. manage to form a collaborator army to fight the Resistance, we will fight it just like we fight Israel," Fadlallah said in a press conference, as he warned against free "gifts" to the U.S.

"We will confront any American-Zionist attempt to produce a new Antoine Lahad under any guise or name, just like we confront the occupation and its collaborators. We will not allow any internal or external considerations to stop us. Our people, who are making sacrifices at this level, will not accept any enemy infiltration into our country."

Fadlallah stressed that Hezbollah's relationship with the army is "excellent", and that the army is dedicated to protecting the country and will refuse to be a tool for the enemy. However, Hezbollah would confront a "collaborator armed force similar to the Free Lebanon Army in 1978 and the South Lebanon Army in 1984."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced that Washington is developing a plan to pursue Hezbollah’s disarmament by building up trusted units within the Lebanese Armed Forces.

"We’re working towards establishing… a system that actually works where vetted units within the Lebanese Armed Forces have the training, the equipment, and the capability to go after elements of Hezbollah and dismantle them, so Israel doesn’t have to do it," Rubio said in an April 27 interview with Fox News.

Delegations from the Lebanese and Israeli militaries will meet in Washington on May 29.

Negotiations will later be held between Lebanon and Israel on June 2 and 3, after three rounds of direct talks.

Fadlalalh said Hezbollah has tasked him with communicating with President Joseph Aoun, as he criticized Aoun's choice to engage in direct talks with Israel. "The president's choice has proven to be ineffective, and we call for it to be reconsidered."

The Hezbollah lawmaker argued that the majority of the Lebanese people, across all sects and not only the Shiites, refuse to recognize Israel and are against "so-called peace" and normalization. "Those promoting it are a minority whose high-pitched media voice is paid for," he said.

Fadlallah warned that any agreements or security arrangements that the authorities agree upon with Israel at the expense of the nation's sovereignty "will have no effect on the ground," adding that betting on the U.S. administration has proven to be a "failure".

He contended that the Resistance does not need "national consensus" as long as the occupation exists, re-iterating that Iran has suspended negotiations with the U.S. for the sake of Lebanon.

Fadlallah argued that Hezbollah is not fighting for Iran, but in self-defense for Lebanon after a 15-month window for diplomacy to work failed. Hezbollah entered the war after the U.S.-Israeli killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but also after 15-monthes of Israeli violations to a ceasefire reached in November 2024.

Hezbollah largely adhered to the November 2024 ceasefire, but Israel persistently violated the truce by launching thousands of airstrikes and maintaining a military occupation over "strategic hills" inside south Lebanon.