Hezbollah leader asks Lebanon to cancel meeting in US with Israel
Amid a surge in Israeli ground operations, Naim Qassem calls for a ‘heroic stance’ to scrap Tuesday’s planned summit
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem urged Lebanon to cancel a planned meeting with Israel in Washington on Tuesday, reiterating his group’s rejection of direct negotiations with its foe.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million since the Iran-backed group Hezbollah drew the country into the Middle East war.
The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States are scheduled to meet in Washington on Tuesday to discuss holding direct negotiations between the two countries.
Lebanese authorities have stressed that Beirut first wants to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war, but Israel has dismissed that prospect, saying it prefers instead to focus on formal peace talks with Lebanon itself, with which it has technically been at war for decades.
“We reject negotiations with the usurping Israeli entity,” Hezbollah’s Qassem, whose group has been at war with Israel since March 2, said in a televised address on Monday.
“We call for a historic and heroic stance by cancelling this negotiating meeting.”