{"id":983974,"date":"2026-05-25T14:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T14:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/983974\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T14:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T14:16:16","slug":"hezbollah-chief-rejects-disarmament-says-weapons-will-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/983974\/","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah chief rejects disarmament, says weapons will remain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hezbollah<\/a> Secretary-General Naim Qassem<\/a> denounced the concept of the terror group\u2019s disarmament during his speech on Resistance and Liberation Day, which commemorates the IDF\u2019s withdrawal from southern Lebanon on May 25, 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no such thing as exclusivity of weapons or disarming Hezbollah,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Further, he argued that Hezbollah\u2019s disarmament would remove Lebanon\u2019s \u201cdefensive capability and the capability of the resistance and its people, as a prelude to extermination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDisarmament is extermination, and this is something we cannot accept,\u201d Qassem said.<\/p>\n

He added that Israel\u2019s withdrawal was the \u201cfirst liberation that took place in the Arab region without an agreement with the Israeli entity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HezbollahHezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem gives a televised speech from an unknown location in this still image obtained from a video released December 5, 2025; illustrative. (credit: Al Manar TV\/REUTERS TV\/via REUTERS )<\/p>\n

He also praised Hezbollah\u2019s first-person view (FPV) drones<\/a>, which he said made Israel \u201cdizzy,\u201d and went on to list several attacks on IDF soldiers. In his list, he claimed that the attacks killed several officers, naming them. The IDF reported that those officers were wounded.<\/p>\n

US not an honest actor due to Israel ties, Hezbollah chief says<\/strong><\/p>\n

Qassem also denounced the United States, stating that it is not a mediator, nor an honest actor but that it \u201cmanages Israel according to its interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the anti-US portion of his address, he criticized Washington\u2019s sanctions on Hezbollah members of the Lebanese Parliament, on the Iranian ambassador in Lebanon (whom Beirut declared persona non grata), and on other Shi\u2019ite officials.<\/p>\n

The Hezbollah leader laid out four premises that, in his view, must be in place before his group and Lebanon could proceed.<\/p>\n

First, that Israel is \u201can expansionist enemy that wants all of Lebanon and the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second, that all Lebanese factions must unite to confront Israel\u2019s \u201caggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Third, all Lebanese factions should prevent internal strife and work toward stability.<\/p>\n

Fourth, that they must stop Israeli \u201caggression,\u201d achieve a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, deploy the Lebanese military south of the Litani River, return Hezbollah \u201cprisoners,\u201d and reconstruct their infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the [Lebanese] government is incapable of securing sovereignty, it should leave,\u201d he argued. He called for demonstrations against the government if they do not agree to Hezbollah\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n

Qassem also rejected direct negotiations between Beirut and Jerusalem. \u201cI advise you \u2013 leave direct negotiations and act coy toward the US. Tell them: Stop asking us for anything; then they will run to you and beg you to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

He discussed the sanctions placed on the Hezbollah-run financial institution al-Qard al-Hassan, claiming that it has no relation to \u201cbanking or economic work,\u201d and that it is merely an institution that \u201cgives loans to those in need.\u201d Additionally, he insisted that Hezbollah has \u201cno relation\u201d to the institution.<\/p>\n

Palestine to remain Hezbollah’s ‘compass,’ Qassem says<\/strong><\/p>\n

Further, he emphasized: \u201cPalestine will remain the compass\u201d for Hezbollah\u2019s policies. \u201cWe will remain supportive and backing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, he denounced the assassination of Hamas military wing chief Izz ad-Din al-Haddad and the seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla<\/a> by the Israeli Navy.<\/p>\n

Discussing the strikes on Iran as part of operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury: \u201cThey attack. The aggression is clear before the whole world,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Islamic Republic will succeed in defending itself from this aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qassem also denounced the Kingdom of Bahrain and its arrest of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-linked activists. \u201cWhat is the king of Bahrain doing? Forty-one scholars and opinion leaders are thrown into prisons because they have a cultural and intellectual direction; they have a political direction, and an opinion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBahrain must return to its senses and release the detainees because injustice does not continue and does not settle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rubio condemns Hezbollah for call to overthrow Lebanese government<\/strong><\/p>\n

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the Hezbollah terrorist group following its Sunday call for the overthrow of the Lebanese government.<\/p>\n

\u201cHezbollah has ignored repeated calls from the legitimate government of Lebanon to cease its attacks and respect a ceasefire,\u201d Rubio stated. \u201cInstead, it has continued firing on Israeli positions and moving fighters and weapons into southern Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio further accused Hezbollah of \u201cactively trying to drag Lebanon back into chaos and destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US stands behind the Lebanese government, the secretary of state promised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem denounced the concept of the terror group\u2019s disarmament during his speech on Resistance and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":983975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[2528,31239,136799,835,836,273637,88931,81673,81305,253765,273636,12,231542,231543,1814,2663,13466,27944,6709,26],"class_list":["post-983974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-bahrain","tag-drone","tag-global-sumud-flotilla","tag-hamas","tag-hezbollah","tag-hezbollah-disarmament","tag-idf","tag-irgc","tag-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps","tag-litani-river","tag-naim-qassem","tag-news","tag-operation-epic-fury","tag-operation-roaring-lion","tag-palestine","tag-sanctions","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorist","tag-washington","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116635645080592446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/983975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}