Qassem says Hezbollah won't hand over arms 'while aggression continues'
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Friday accused the Lebanese government of "handing" the country to Israel by pushing for the group's disarmament, warning it would fight to keep its weapons.
Qassem spoke in a televised address several hours after meeting Iran's top security chief Ali Larijani, whose country has long backed the Lebanese armed group.
Hezbollah emerged badly weakened from last year's war with Israel, and under U.S. pressure the Lebanese government has ordered the army to devise a plan to disarm the group by the end of the year.
Iran, whose so-called "axis of resistance" includes Hezbollah, has also suffered a series of setbacks, most recently in the war with Israel that saw the United States strike its nuclear sites.
"The government is implementing an American-Israeli order to end the resistance, even if it leads to civil war and internal strife," Qassem warned.
"The resistance will not surrender its weapons while aggression continues, occupation persists, and we will fight it... if necessary to confront this American-Israeli project no matter the cost," he said.
Qassem urged the government "not to hand over the country to an insatiable Israeli aggressor or an American tyrant with limitless greed."
He also said the government would "bear responsibility for any internal explosion and any destruction of Lebanon," accusing it of "leading the country to ruin."
Hezbollah and its ally Amal Movement would not be organizing any street protests at this time, he said, while threatening to do so in future "across Lebanon" and "at the U.S. Embassy" in Awkar.
Before the war with Israel, Hezbollah was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military.
It long maintained it had to keep its arsenal in order to defend Lebanon from attack, but critics accused it of using its weapons for political leverage.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council chief Larijani was in Beirut this week, where he met Qassem as well as with President Joseph Aoun.
Iran has expressed its opposition to the government's disarmament plan, and has vowed to continue to provide support.
Aoun told Larijani that he rejected any interference in the country's internal affairs, branding as "unconstructive" Iran's statements on plans to disarm Hezbollah.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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