Hezbollah chief rejects peace talks under fire, calling for ‘National Unity’

WEB DESK: Hezbollah’s newly appointed leader, Naim Qassem, has delivered a defiant message to the Lebanese government and the international community, dismissing any prospect of direct negotiations with Israel while hostilities continue.

In a televised address read on his behalf on Wednesday, Qassem characterised the proposal of holding talks amidst ongoing military strikes as an attempt to force a “surrender” upon Lebanon, according to the Express Tribune.

A call to arms and political reversal

The speech, broadcast via Hezbollah-affiliated media, took a sharp aim at the Lebanese presidency’s recent initiatives to curb the conflict through diplomacy.

Qassem asserted that engaging with an “enemy that occupies our land” while under active bombardment was fundamentally unacceptable. Beyond the battlefield, the Hezbollah chief issued a direct challenge to domestic policy, urging the Lebanese government to rescind its March 2 decision which banned the group’s military activities.

He argued that true “national unity” could only be achieved if the state embraced the party’s armed resistance, rather than restricting it.

Stressing that his fighters remain prepared to engage “without limits,” Qassem’s rhetoric signals a deepening of the current deadlock.

By linking the removal of the military ban to the concept of national solidarity, the group is placing significant pressure on the Lebanese administration to align its official stance with Hezbollah’s long-term military strategy.