New Hezbollah chief says open to ceasefire with Israel on ‘suitable’ terms
The militant group, however, ‘will not beg’ for hostilities to end, its leader Naim Qassem said.
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Naim Qassem, the new leader of the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, said on Wednesday that the group was open to a ceasefire with Israel if the two sides could agree to “suitable” terms, reported AFP. He clarified that no viable ceasefire deal had been proposed yet.
Qassem, who was appointed as Hezbollah’s secretary-general on October 29, did not say that a ceasefire in Lebanon would have to be contingent on an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza, a position that the group held previously.
“If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable,” Qassem said in his first pre-recorded speech since becoming Hezbollah’s new chief.
Qassem said that Hezbollah “will not beg for a ceasefire” and noted that political efforts to broker a peace deal had not been successful.
“No project has been proposed that Israel agrees to and that we can discuss,” he said.
Qassem replaced Hassan Nasrallah, the militant group’s former leader, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on September 27. Nasrallah led the group for 32 years.
Hezbollah is engaged in a conflict with Israel, which has intensified strikes on its strongholds in Lebanon and sent ground forces across the border in the...
