The new leader of Hezbollah, Naim Qassemaffirmed this Wednesday that the Shiite group has the capacity to continue the war with Israel “for months”, although he reiterated that he is ready to accept a ceasefire “under conditions”.
“We can continue for months, I won’t say more,” Qasem said in his first speech after being named Hezbollah’s new secretary general on Tuesday to succeed Hezbollah. Hassan Nasrallahkilled a month ago by Israel during a massive bombing of the southern Beirut suburb known as Dahye.
During his speech, he confirmed that he planned to follow the agenda established by his predecessor and He asked for “patience” from the fighters and the Lebanese, while demanding that Israeli soldiers leave Lebanon, which began an invasion of the south of the country at the beginning of October: “Leave our lands to reduce your losses, if you stay you will see defeat”he said.
“Will the war continue? It looks like the US elections will be a turning point“, asked Qasem, indicating that “maybe there is someone who will exploit (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu” to stop hostilities, he said.
Open to a ceasefire
On the other hand, Qasem assured that Hezbollah is willing to maintain “indirect” negotiations with Israel to achieve a truce end more than a year of war, which has caused the death of more than 2,700 people and the displacement of more than 1.2 million others in Lebanon alone, in addition to the annihilation of a large part of the leadership of Shiite armed training
“If the enemy decides (to accept) a ceasefire, we will say that yes, but with conditions. The solution will be to maintain indirect negotiations for this purpose,” declared the cleric who, at the beginning of October – when he was Hezbollah’s number two – had given his support to the truce talks negotiated by the President of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berry.
In this sense, he recalled that Berri, who also leads the Shiite group Amalally of Hezbollah, is “the pillar of the negotiations”, even if he regretted that “there is still no clear project on which to agree” to end the hostilities.
Berri, who served as parliament speaker for three decades, is a crucial figure who serves as the group’s channel of communication with the rest of the Lebanese political spectrum.
“We have always said that we do not want war, but we are ready if it is imposed on us and we will do it with firmness and we will triumph, God willing,” insisted Qasem, who declared that the only objective of Hezbollah “is to protect.” Lebanon” and “support Palestine”.
