BEIRUT: Lebanese Justice Minister Adel Nassar accused Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem of contradicting himself following a speech in which the latter threatened escalation if the government attempted to confront or disarm the Iran-backed group.
Nassar said Qassem had previously accepted the ceasefire agreement with Israel and endorsed the ministerial statement affirming the Lebanese state’s exclusive control over arms.
However, in a speech on Friday at a religious ceremony in Baalbek, Qassem openly rejected the disarmament of Hezbollah, calling it “unacceptable” and accusing the government of implementing an “American-Israeli order to eliminate the resistance, even if that leads to civil war and internal strife.”
Speaking to Arab News, Nassar said: “Qassem says he doesn’t want a civil war, but he’s threatening to take to the streets to defend his weapons and holding the state responsible for any clash with the army.”
The justice minister stressed that “the party outside the legitimacy that refuses to surrender its weapons to the state bears responsibility for this.”
