Hezbollah lawmaker calls on Lebanon to ‘withdraw’ from talks ‘with the Zionist enemy’

Lebanese lawmaker Mohammed Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, calls for Lebanon to “withdraw” from direct talks with Israel that US President Donald Trump says have a “very good chance” of achieving peace.

“The authorities ought to feel ashamed before their people and withdraw from what has been called direct negotiations with the Zionist enemy,” he says in a statement, adding that “any official contact or meeting bringing together the Lebanese and Israeli sides amid the ongoing war… will in no way enjoy Lebanese national consensus.”

“Any so-called truce that grants the occupying enemy in Lebanon a special exemption to open fire… is not a truce at all, but rather a devious deception and an attempt to dupe others, one that entails covering up Israeli hostility and turning a blind eye to the enemy’s continued violations.”