Published On 5/12/2025
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Last update: 18:28 (Mecca time)
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem denounced the Lebanese government’s decision to send a civilian representative to participate in the tripartite committee concerned with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism with Israel, considering the move a “free concession” offered to Israel and granting it political gains for free.
Qassem said – in a televised speech during a party ceremony today, Friday – that the inclusion of a Lebanese civilian in the Mechanics Committee represents an “additional failure” in addition to what he described as a “sin” of the August 5 decision to disarm the party, and he considered this path an unjustified expansion in the nature of the military committee, which was established primarily to follow up on the field and security aspects exclusively.
The Secretary-General of Hezbollah called for a return to literal adherence to previous Lebanese positions and the military-technical framework specified for the Ceasefire Committee, considering this step inconsistent with what the Lebanese state previously announced.
“Controls” protect Lebanon’s position
Qassem stressed that Hezbollah is cooperating with the state and supports its diplomatic option to stop Israeli attacks, but “within clear controls that protect Lebanon’s position.”
He stressed that the border at which any agreement with Israel must stop is linked exclusively to the south of the Litani.
The Secretary-General of Hezbollah added that Washington “has nothing to do with weapons, defense strategy, or internal Lebanese disputes,” indicating the rejection of any American role that goes beyond the technical framework of the ceasefire mechanism.
The meetings of the committee concerned with monitoring the ceasefire witnessed the day before yesterday, Wednesday, the participation of two civilian envoys (Lebanese and Israeli) for the first time in decades, in a move that the Lebanese presidency said was aimed at “removing the specter of a second war” from the country.
President Joseph Aoun had assigned Ambassador Simon Karam to head the Lebanese delegation to the Mechanics Committee, noting that the assignment came after consultations with the heads of Parliament and the government regarding the necessity of holding negotiations and including a civilian person to the committee.
Karam is the first non-military civilian figure to represent Lebanon in these meetings, in a step that moves the process from its purely technical military framework to a civilian approach with a clear political cover.
The “mechanism” meeting – the day before yesterday – was joined by Karam and the Director of Foreign Policy at the Israeli National Security Council, Yuri Resnick, in the presence of the American envoy Morgan Ortagus, in a move welcomed by Washington and Paris, which participate in the ceasefire monitoring committee.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the talks were held “in a positive atmosphere,” explaining that “it was agreed to formulate ideas to enhance possible economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon,” stressing that “the disarmament of Hezbollah is inevitable.”
On November 27, 2024, Israel and Lebanon reached a ceasefire agreement, under American and French sponsorship, a year after the Israeli aggression against Lebanon. Despite the agreement’s validity, Israel is still carrying out daily raids on various areas in Lebanon, and has kept its forces in 5 hills in the south.