The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, declared on July 6, 2025, that his group, significantly weakened by the war with Israel, would neither ‘surrender’ nor hand over its weapons despite mounting pressure to disarm. ‘The threat from Israel will not make us surrender; no one today can tell us to soften our positions and give up our arms,’ said Qassem in a televised address broadcast to thousands of supporters gathered in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah’s stronghold, for the Shiite religious holiday of Ashura.
Tomorrow, Monday, U.S. envoy Tom Barak is set to arrive in Beirut, where Lebanese authorities are expected to deliver their official response to his demand that the Shiite group be disarmed by the end of the year, according to an unnamed official source.
Qassem emphasized that Israel must first implement the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon — ‘withdraw from occupied territories, stop its attacks (…), release Lebanese detainees.’ He also called for the start of reconstruction efforts in areas devastated by the war that ended in November. ‘Then we will be ready for the second stage, which is a discussion about Lebanon’s national security and defense strategy,’ a term that includes the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament.
Naim Qassem succeeded Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli raid in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital last September during the war between the Shiite group and Israel.
Despite the ceasefire that came into force on November 27 after more than a year of hostilities, including two months of open warfare, the Israeli military continues to carry out regular strikes inside Lebanon, targeting, as it claims, Hezbollah operatives.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army, which was supposed to have fully withdrawn from Lebanon, maintains five positions in the country’s south, which it considers strategic.