Hezbollah’s top leadership came out swinging on Saturday against a newly signed Israel-Lebanon framework agreement, branding it a “humiliation” and declaring it has no legal standing.
The agreement was finalized on Friday following five rounds of negotiations in Washington. It lays out a step-by-step plan to wind down the conflict by gradually replacing Israeli Defense Forces positions in southern Lebanon with the Lebanese army, while also pushing forward the disarmament of the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem declared the deal “null and void” and a “humiliation,” insisting it should be thrown out in favor of a memorandum of understanding currently being negotiated — one that would fold a Lebanon ceasefire into a broader agreement involving Iran. Israel has pushed back against that approach.
Qassem drew a hard line, saying any attempt to link an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Hezbollah giving up its weapons crossed “red lines.” He further argued that entering into such a deal with Israel would “legitimize the Zionist occupation.”
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a known ally of Hezbollah, went even further, calling the accord an “incitement to civil war.”
Hezbollah’s Lawyers’ Association also weighed in, contending the agreement conflicts with Lebanon’s constitution because it states that Israel and Lebanon “affirm the right of each state to exist in peace.” The group argued the constitution “considers Zionism to be a challenge to human dignity” and calls for working “to eliminate it.”
The U.S. State Department, for its part, described the framework as a structured process to dismantle Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure, strip the group of its weapons, and allow Israeli forces to exit Lebanon once the threat posed by Hezbollah has been neutralized.
Under the terms of the deal, the United States will create a new trilateral body called the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon, or MCG4L, charged with overseeing how the framework is put into practice. Washington also pledged to bolster the capabilities of Lebanon’s armed forces, back Lebanese military operations against Hezbollah, and deliver $100 million in humanitarian aid to be coordinated through the United Nations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the agreement on Friday, calling it “a major achievement for the State of Israel.” He said Israel would “remain [in] the security zone in southern Lebanon” while working through a phased withdrawal of Israeli Defense Forces as the Lebanese army moves in, disarms Hezbollah, and asserts its authority over the region.
