Hezbollah Vows To Help Build Lebanon's Defensive Capacities
Date
11/29/2024 11:02:25 PM
(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday vowed to co-operate with the Lebanese army and help build the country's defence capacities amid efforts to implement the terms of a ceasefire with Israel.
Qassem was speaking for the first time since the start of the ceasefire on Wednesday that envisions both Hezbollah and the Israeli military withdrawing from south Lebanon and the Lebanese military deploying there alongside UN peacekeepers.
"We will work to... strengthen Lebanon's defensive capacities," said Qassem, who succeeded Hezbollah's former leader Hassan Nasrallah after he was killed in an Israeli air strike on south Beirut in September.
"The resistance will be ready to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of Lebanon's weakness along with our partners... first and foremost the army," he added in a televised speech.
"The co-ordination between the resistance and the Lebanese army will be at a high level to implement the commitments of the agreement," Qassem continued, adding that "no one is betting on problems or disagreements" with the army.
Qassem also declared that his group had achieved a "great victory" against Israel that "surpasses that of July 2006", referring to the last time Hezbollah went to war with Israel.
"We won because we prevented the enemy from destroying Hezbollah... (and) from annihilating or weakening the resistance." Qassem vowed that "our support for Palestine will not stop and will continue through different means".
Lebanon's health ministry said at least 3,961 people have been killed in the country since October 2023 as a result of the conflict, most of them in recent weeks, while 16,520 were wounded.
On the Israeli side, the hostilities with Hezbollah killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities there say.
The military also announced a nighttime curfew in south Lebanon for the third day in a row, warning residents they are "strictly forbidden to move or travel south of the Litani River" between 5pm (1500 GMT) Friday and 7am (0500 GMT) the following day.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israeli troops will hold their positions but "a 60-day period will commence in which the Lebanese military and security forces will begin their deployment towards the south", a US official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Then, Israel should begin a phased withdrawal without a vacuum forming that Hezbollah or others could rush into, the official said.
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