Tehran: Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem has rejected a US-brokered 'framework agreement,' declaring it a capitulation of Lebanese sovereignty that legitimizes Israeli occupation and links Israeli military withdrawal to the disarmament of the resistance.
According to Islamic Republic News Agency, Sheikh Qassem, in a statement on Saturday, called for the agreement, signed between the Lebanese government and the Israeli regime, to be rejected outright. He urged adherence instead to the Iran-US memorandum of understanding and a continuation of resistance until Lebanon's full liberation.
The Hezbollah chief described the linking of an Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon to the disarmament of the resistance as 'an extremely dangerous proposal that crosses all red lines.' He further warned that the Lebanese government was in the process of legitimizing the continuation of Israeli regime's occupation for years to come, adding that the arrangement could even lead to the annexation of Lebanese territories into Israeli-occupied lands.
Questioning the integrity of Lebanese officials, Sheikh Qassem asked where their honesty and responsibility toward their own people and the protection of Lebanese sovereignty lay. He said the resistance had told the government that direct negotiations amounted to nothing more than handing free concessions to the Israeli regime, as such talks were designed to impose surrender to Israeli and American demands and dictates.
Turning to the diplomatic backdrop, Sheikh Qassem recalled that when a ceasefire emerged from the Iran-US talks held in Pakistan in April 2026, Israel was rebuffed. He said the Iran-US memorandum of understanding had established the cessation of hostilities against Lebanon as its first clause, and that when the Israeli enemy refused to comply, Iran suspended the agreement and continued closing the Strait of Hormuz until the United States pressured Israel into accepting a ceasefire.
Sheikh Qassem said the Islamabad memorandum guaranteed 'the security of Lebanese soil and its sovereignty,' to be achieved through a full Israeli withdrawal agreed upon within 60 days, describing it as a trump card in Lebanon's hands, one the government had never dreamed of possessing.
'In the framework agreement, Lebanese officials abandoned the leverage of the memorandum, the strength and steadfastness of the resistance, and the sacrifices of this great Lebanese nation, and gave Israel everything it wanted for free,' he said. Sheikh Qassem condemned the framework agreement in the strongest terms, saying, 'What a terrible mistake! What a great sin it is to hand sovereignty over to the Israeli enemy!'
He said the agreement allowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to permit the Lebanese army to operate in only two pilot zones, with the occupying regime overseeing the phases of deployment and disarmament, legitimizing the occupation for years to come and potentially leading to the annexation of Lebanese territories into Israeli-occupied lands. He added that the agreement was one that deprived the Lebanese of their right to return to their own land.
Sheikh Qassem questioned why the Israeli enemy should be allowed to interfere in Lebanon's internal affairs, stating that any agreement must be confined to the area south of the Litani River and must have no bearing on any internal Lebanese matters concerning weapons, security, or the country's future. He warned that under the framework agreement, any weapon found anywhere in Lebanon would be interpreted as evidence of Lebanese non-compliance.
'No one has the right to deprive the Lebanese of their right to defend themselves and their land against the occupier of our land and the killer of our people,' he said. Sheikh Qassem declared the Washington framework agreement 'humiliating, shameful, and a surrender of sovereignty,' calling it null and void, and vowing to pursue all available means and apply international and Arab pressure to compel Israel to comply with the first clause of the Islamabad memorandum and withdraw from Lebanon.
Concluding his remarks, the Hezbollah Secretary-General said, 'As a resistance, we will continue our struggle to defeat the occupying regime. We did not abandon the field in the most difficult circumstances, and we will not abandon it, for this is the path of good and salvation.'