Qassem refuses to commit to arms handover while Israel continues attacks

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Tuesday his group would not accept any timetable on handing over its weapons to the Lebanese state while Israeli strikes continue, as the government held a session on the issue.

"Any timetable presented for implementation under... Israeli aggression cannot be agreed to," Qassem said in a televised address, urging the state to develop "plans to face the pressure and threats" and not to "deprive the resistance (Hezbollah) of its capacities and strength."

"The resistance is fine, strong and dignified, its supporters are resilient and coherent, and its fighters are ready to offer the dearest sacrifices," Qassem added.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah emerged badly weakened from more than a year of hostilities with Israel, including two months of all-out war that saw its arsenal pummeled and a slew of senior commanders killed, among them leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Long the strongest political force in Lebanon -- with detractors accusing it of using the threat of its weaponry to impose its will on domestic decisions -- Hezbollah has also seen that influence diminish since the conflict.

Israel has kept up regular raids on Lebanon despite the November truce, mostly saying it is striking Hezbollah targets, and has threatened to keep doing so until the group has been disarmed.

"Are we being asked to engage in dialogue, or to surrender our weapons without dialogue?" Qassem said.

"We cannot accept Lebanon committing to gradually giving up its strength while all the strength cards remain in the hands of the Israeli enemy," he added.

Qassem also criticized a recent proposal presented by U.S. envoy Tom Barrack on disarming the group.

"Whoever looks at the deal Barrack brought doesn't find an agreement but dictates," he said, arguing that "it removes the strength and capabilities of Hezbollah and Lebanon entirely."

Hezbollah is the only faction that kept its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of "resistance" against Israel, which occupied the country's south until 2000.

Last month, Barrack urged Lebanon to "act now" to impose a state weapons monopoly.

A Lebanese official with knowledge of the talks told AFP that "Washington is pressuring Lebanon to make Hezbollah hand over its weapons according to a timetable, but without (the U.S.) providing any guarantees."

President Joseph Aoun last week said Lebanon was committed to removing "weapons from all armed groups including Hezbollah" and seeing them surrendered to the Lebanese Army.

Lebanon is at "a crucial stage" and must choose "between collapse and stability," Aoun had said, linking international support for the crisis-hit country to disarming the group.

In his speech, Qassem said that "we do not agree to any new deal other than the existing deal between the Lebanese state and the Israeli entity," referring to the November ceasefire.

Qassem also warned Israel against launching any new "large-scale aggression."

“Israel's interest is not to widen the aggression because if they expand, the resistance will defend, the army will defend and the people will defend,” Qassem said. "This defense will lead to the fall of missiles inside the Israeli entity,” he added.

Before discussing the fate of its weapons, which it considers a matter of domestic defense strategy, Hezbollah has demanded that reconstruction of areas destroyed during the war begin, and that Israel stop its attacks, withdraw from five areas it occupies and release Lebanese prisoners.