Hezbollah leader says no diplomatic agreement with Israel before end of hostilities

In his second address since being appointed Hezbollah leader, Naim Qassem rules out a diplomatic settlement to the conflict with Israel before the end of hostilities.

In a pre-recorded televised address, Qassem says that the war will only end once Israel stops its “aggression” against Lebanon, and only at that point will the terror group agree to indirect negotiations, under the mediation of its ally Nabih Berri, president of the Lebanese Parliament.

Qassem does not indicate a ceasefire in Gaza as a precondition for a halt to its war against Israel.

Qassem claims that the terror group is conducting a defensive war of attrition and has been preparing for a long confrontation since the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. He further claims that Hezbollah has “tens of thousands of jihadis that are ready to die as martyrs,” strengthened by their Islamic ideology, their training and their weapons.

Qassem further accuses Israel of aiming to defeat the terror group as a first step to conquering Lebanon, and subsequently to “change the map of the Middle East.”

In response to the Israeli “aggression,” Qassem says that the terror group will continue firing rockets and drones at Israel, and that the launches of the past days are only a taste of what is to come next.

Touching on the heavy toll the war has imposed on the Lebanese civilian population, Qassem claims that it is the “price to pay for victory” and denies that there are frictions between displaced Shiites and other groups inside Lebanon, despite evidence to the contrary.

Qassem also comments on the abduction of a top Hezbollah naval operative in north Lebanon by Israeli commandos last week, saying that it was a “humiliation” for Lebanon and demanding explanations from the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL, in particular from the German contingent, which mans a naval patrol.