Hezbollah chief says group's weapons not part of talks with Israel

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Tuesday that his group’s weapons were not part of upcoming negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, and vowed his fighters would turn the battlefield into “hell” for Israeli forces.

“Nobody outside Lebanon has anything to do with the weapons, the resistance… this is an internal Lebanese matter and not part of negotiations with the enemy,” Qassem said in a written statement addressed to the group’s fighters and broadcast on its Al-Manar television channel.

A third round of talks between Lebanese and Israeli representatives is set to take place this Thursday and Friday in Washington, after the first direct meeting in decades between the two sides was held last month.

US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire days after the first meeting.

The talks have caused divisions in Lebanon, with Hezbollah rejecting direct negotiations with Israel and saying their outcomes do not concern the group.

Qassem on Tuesday called for a “withdrawal from the direct negotiations, which are pure gains for Israel and free concessions by the Lebanese authorities”.

“We are facing an Israeli-American aggression that wants to subjugate our country of Lebanon,” Qassem said in the statement.

“We will not surrender and we will continue to defend Lebanon and its people, however long it takes and however great the sacrifices,” he said.

“We will not abandon the battlefield and we will turn it into hell for Israel.”

Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “a peace deal between Lebanon and Israel is eminently achievable and should be”, emphasising that the problem was Hezbollah.

Also last week State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Washington recognised “that comprehensive peace is contingent on the full restoration of Lebanese state authority and the complete disarmament” of Hezbollah.

Israel has intensified its attacks in south Lebanon as it trades fire with Hezbollah despite the April 17 truce, under which Israel reserves the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

Qassem said that “the Iranian-US agreement that includes a halt to the aggression in Lebanon is basically the strongest card for stopping the aggression”.

He also said “the responsibility for negotiating to achieve Lebanon’s sovereign objectives remains the responsibility of authorities in Lebanon”, affirming his group’s readiness to cooperate with them.

Hezbollah has kept up attacks since the truce, mainly on Israeli targets in south Lebanon but also over the border, saying they come in response to Israeli ceasefire violations.

Israeli troops who invaded after war erupted on March 2 are operating inside a so-called “yellow line” in south Lebanon near the border.