Hezbollah’s Secretary General Naim Qassem has sought to woe the Lebanese opposed to the war that his pro-Iranian party initiated “in support for Gaza” by promising to facilitate the long-delayed election of a president of the Republic and respect the terms of the Taif Agreement, which ended the 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon.
“We will contribute to electing a president in a constitutional way, and our political steps will be under the roof of Taif, and we will be present in the political field to build and protect in the post-war phase,” Qassem said in a televised address on Wednesday, in an obvious attempt to entice the opposition.
In parallel, he reaffirmed Hezbollah’s preparedness for a long battle against Israel, stressing that the party is following two tracks, “the field track and the negotiation track.”
On the fate of the ceasefire negotiations spearheaded by the US through its envoy Amos Hochstein, Qassem made it clear that the ball is in Israel’s court.
“We received the US proposal and made our comments as well as Speaker Nabih Berri. Israel hopes to gain from the proposal what they have failed to gain on the field and this is not possible.”
“No one can guarantee whether the negotiations will lead to a ceasefire because it is linked to the Israeli response and the agreement is linked to stopping the aggression and safeguarding Lebanon’s sovereignty,” Qassem said.
He maintained that Hezbollah, which was baffled and confused for 10 days following the September 27 assassination of its former charismatic leader Hassan Nasrallah, has rebuilt itself and is keeping up the fight against Israel, which has intensified the conflict since October by escalating air strikes and entering southern Lebanon.
In yet another bid to reassure Hezbollah’s partisans and to justify the havoc wreaked on Lebanon, especially in the mainly-Shiite southern villages, Qassem claimed that some 100 Israeli troops were killed and more than 1000 injured since the Israeli Army started its ground operations in southern Lebanon.
“We have only two options, either victory or martyrdom. Hezbollah fighters are entrenched along the border despite the ground operations. Depriving the enemy from achieving its goals implies victory for the resistance,” he added.
Comments