Hezbollah lawmaker says group can ‘thwart’ goals of Lebanon-Israel talks

BEIRUT – A Hezbollah lawmaker said on May 3 that the group would be able to “thwart” the objectives of direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.

Speaking at an event to honour killed Hezbollah fighters, Mr Hassan Fadlallah said “these negotiations with all their results do not concern us, and we will not implement them”.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2, when it fired rockets at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have since killed more than 2,600 people and displaced more than a million.

“We have a free people and a steadfast resistance capable of thwarting all the objectives of these negotiations, which increase the sharp division in the country between the factions of our people and within the state itself,” Mr Fadlallah added.

Lebanon and Israel’s US ambassadors have held two meetings in Washington in recent weeks, the first of their kind in decades.

The first meeting led to a pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, while Lebanon and Israel agreed to direct negotiations under pressure from the United States.

The two countries have been officially at war since 1948.

Hezbollah has strongly rejected the talks, with its leader Naim Qassem calling them a “sin”.

Supporters of the armed group have launched campaigns against Lebanon’s president and prime minister over the negotiations.

Israel has kept up deadly strikes on Lebanon despite the April 17 ceasefire, which sought to halt more than six weeks of war between its military and Hezbollah.

The Israeli military on May 3 issued new evacuation warnings for a number of villages in southern Lebanon, including areas beyond a zone invaded by Israeli troops during the war.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency later reported a series of Israeli strikes across the south, including on towns not mentioned in the evacuation warning.

The ceasefire text grants Israel the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on April 29 for Israel to fully implement the ceasefire before the talks can take place.

He has previously said the negotiations aim to stop the war, secure an Israeli withdrawal from the south, demarcate the border and end the “state of hostility” with Israel.

Mr Fadlallah said “any new agreement that will be established in Lebanon must guarantee that our country will not be attacked in any way”. AFP