🔻Naim Qassem, secretary-general of Hezbollah Lebanon, once again rejected an agreement between Lebanon and Israel on Friday and said that the group, backed by Iran, is not ready to “surrender.”

He said in a televised speech broadcast by Al-Manar network: “We are opposed to a framework agreement and we want it to be revoked.”

After the outbreak of war on March 2 and Hezbollah’s attack on Israel, which was accompanied by extensive attacks and Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, Lebanon and Israel entered direct negotiations with U.S. mediation. Lebanese officials say that more than 4,300 people were killed in this war.

In late June, the two sides reached a framework agreement in the talks that provides for disarmament of Hezbollah, gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the area; a process that is set to begin with “test areas.”

Naim Qassem called the agreement “illegitimate, unlawful, humiliating, and destructive to Lebanon’s sovereignty” and said that Hezbollah opposes test areas and any verification mechanism.

📸Reuters