Hezbollah chief rejects Lebanon-Israel deal again

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday again rejected a Lebanon-Israel framework agreement and said the Iran-backed group would not “surrender”, opposing provisions that call for Hezbollah’s disarmament and a phased Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon.

“We are against the framework agreement and call for its downfall,” Qassem said in a televised address broadcast on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel. He called the agreement “illegitimate, unlawful, humiliating” and said Hezbollah did not accept proposed “pilot zones” or any verification system.

Israel and Lebanon launched US-sponsored direct talks after Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2, and Israel responded with strikes and a ground invasion. Lebanese authorities say Israeli strikes and the ground invasion have killed more than 4,300 people.

At talks in late June, Lebanon and Israel signed a framework deal calling for Hezbollah’s disarmament, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in pilot zones. A fresh round of talks had been planned for early September, but no date has been announced.

Violence has declined since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding on the wider conflict in June and the framework deal later that month, but Lebanon still reports Israeli strikes, artillery shelling and demolitions of civilian buildings in southern villages and towns. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported several Israeli airstrikes in the south on Friday, including in the Nabatieh area.