Qassem asks Lebanese state to cancel Tuesday meeting with Israel
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Monday urged the Lebanese state to cancel a planned meeting with Israel in Washington the following day, reiterating his group's rejection of direct negotiations with Israel.
"We reject negotiations with the usurping Israeli entity... We call for a historic and heroic stance by canceling this negotiating meeting," Qassem, whose Iran-backed group has been at war with Israel since March 2, said in a televised address.
The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States are scheduled to meet in Washington on Tuesday to discuss holding direct negotiations between the two countries.
"The state's inaction can be justified by its weakness and inability, but it cannot be justified for the state to become a tool for Israel by exerting pressure and taking government decisions that weaken the internal situation in the face of aggression," Qassem said.
Addressing President Joseph Aoun, he added: "Your Excellency, they are pressuring you to confront your own people, but we are all sons of one country -- we build it together and we establish it together."
"Our decision is not to calm down and not to surrender, we'll let the battlefield speak, and we reject the futile negotiations, which require unanimity," Qassem went on to say.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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