An image grab taken from Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV shows Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivering a speech in 2024. On Wednesday, Qassem said negotiations with Israel should be limited to "mutual security." Photo by Al-Manar TV/UPI | License Photo
BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 17 (UPI) -- Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Wednesday that Lebanon's negotiations with Israel should be limited to "mutual security" to secure Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, adding that efforts to overthrow the Iranian regime had failed and that the regional balance of power had changed.
Qassem said in a televised speech that the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, which aimed at overthrowing its regime, had failed to achieve its goal and that the "course of events has changed."
"The arrogance of American tyranny has been broken, and its colonial project against Iran has failed," he said. "Iran is now a significant power with influence in the region and the world. The balance of power will change for the better, in the interest of the peoples of the region."
Qassem praised his Shiite militant group, which has been armed and funded by Iran since it was founded in the early 1980s, for confronting Israel and thwarting its "Greater Israel" project.
