Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem declared on Friday that the Islamic resistance movement would continue its armed campaign against Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) regardless of ongoing diplomatic overtures by the Lebanese government, drawing a firm line between state-level negotiations and the resistance’s independent military posture.
“The resistance will continue until the last breath,” Qassem stated unequivocally. “Together — as a state, army, people, and resistance — we will defend the country, restore its sovereignty, and expel the occupier.” He further asserted that the IDF had failed to achieve any of its stated invasion objectives and had been compelled to repeatedly revise its operational goals in the face of sustained Hezbollah pressure.
Qassem highlighted that after more than 40 days of active combat, Israeli forces had proven unable to halt Hezbollah’s missile and drone offensive, with strikes reaching as far as the northern Israeli port city of Haifa and beyond — a significant demonstration of the movement’s retained military reach.
The declaration comes against a volatile diplomatic backdrop. Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh confirmed that peace negotiations between Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to take place on United States soil, potentially as early as 14 April. The talks follow a reported two-week ceasefire framework brokered between Iran and Washington, under which Hezbollah had agreed to a temporary truce with Israel.
However, that agreement collapsed within hours of its announcement. Israel launched massive bombing raids on Beirut and southern Lebanon on Wednesday, effectively nullifying the ceasefire before it could take hold. The strikes drew immediate condemnation and reinforced Hezbollah’s stated position that Israeli commitments to negotiated pauses cannot be relied upon.
The dual-track dynamic — a Lebanese government pursuing diplomacy while Hezbollah maintains its armed resistance — underscores the complex internal and regional calculus at play in the conflict, as international actors, including the United States and Iran, attempt to manage escalation in a theatre that continues to defy containment.
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