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Hezbollah warns of civil war in Lebanon if gov’t insists on disarmament bid
Sheikh Qassem affirms ‘resistance will not surrender its weapons’
Under US pressure the Lebanese government has ordered the army to devise a plan to disarm the resistance group by the end of the year after Lebanese group reached a cease-fire agreement with Israel to end a conflict with the regime, which began following Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023. "The government is implementing an American-Israeli order to end the resistance, even if it leads to civil war and internal strife," Sheikh Qassem said. "The resistance will not surrender its weapons while aggression continues, occupation persists, and we will fight it... if necessary to confront this American-Israeli project no matter the cost," he said. Qassem urged the government "not to hand over the country to an insatiable Israeli aggressor or an American tyrant with limitless greed".
He also said the government would "bear responsibility for any internal explosion and any destruction of Lebanon", accusing it of "leading the country to ruin."
Hezbollah and its ally Amal would not be organizing any street protests at this time, he said, while threatening to do so in future.
His comments came two days after a visit by Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani to Lebanon, where he met Sheikh Qassem as well as President Joseph Aoun. The Iranian official assured the movement that the Islamic Republic would consistently stand beside them, stressing that the country did not interfere in the domestic affairs of other nations, but would never abandon its support for the resistance front.