Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Tuesday that Israel's regular military strikes on Lebanon “cannot continue”, as he warned that “everything has a limit”.
Mr Qassem's remarks came as Israel accused Hezbollah of trying to smuggle weapons from Syria, and of operating in a southern area of Lebanon it was supposed to withdraw from under the 2024 ceasefire.
Israeli forces have breached that truce hundreds of times in near-daily attacks. Still, Mr Qassem said in a televised speech that Hezbollah was committed to the ceasefire and that there was “no alternative” to the deal.
He said if Israel stopped its attacks on Lebanon and released Lebanese detainees, then northern Israeli towns would have “no problem” with security. But he insisted Hezbollah would not lay down its weapons despite a Lebanese disarmament plan being drawn up under US pressure. “The aggression cannot continue, for everything has a limit,” he said.
Hezbollah was greatly weakened in its most recent war with Israel, in which its leader Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated. The US is now pushing to cut off its funding sources and have the Lebanese military disarm the group.
“America ... is putting pressure on the government to make concessions without any reciprocal commitments or guarantees … and wants to give Israel free rein,” Mr Qassem said, on Hezbollah's Al Manar TV channel. “The government's role is not to listen to American diktats and begin implementing them.”
US Treasury representatives who met Lebanese officials on Sunday and Monday urged them to take action to halt funding of Hezbollah from Iran. According to the Treasury, Iran has transferred more than a billion dollars to the group since January.
The US “is very serious about cutting off Iran's funding” to Hezbollah, counter-terrorism official John Hurley told journalists. But Hezbollah rejects the plans to weaken its position further. “We will not give up our weapons, which give us strength and determination,” Mr Qassem said on Tuesday.
The Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said Hezbollah was operating south of the Litani River, in breach of the accord. Israel carries out regular strikes against what it says are Hezbollah targets, and occupies five positions in southern Lebanon it was supposed to have withdrawn from.
Mr Shoshani said Hezbollah was also trying to smuggle in weapons from Syria and via other routes to Lebanon. “We are working to prevent that from happening and to block the ground routes from Syria into Lebanon to a high level of success, but they still pose a threat to us,” he said.
