Hezbollah rejects US-brokered Israel-Lebanon security deal as 'surrender'

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Saturday rejected the US-brokered security agreement signed a day earlier between Lebanon and Israel, calling it a "surrender to Israel" and declaring the framework "null and void". The group said the deal undermines Lebanon's sovereignty by linking an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Hezbollah's disarmament, while Israel defended the agreement as a mechanism to maintain security along the border.Qassem accused the Lebanese government of making unilateral concessions and said the agreement effectively legitimised Israel's continued military presence in southern Lebanon.He criticised provisions tying Israel's phased withdrawal to Hezbollah's disarmament, saying they crossed "all red lines". Reaffirming the group's position, Qassem said Hezbollah would continue its armed resistance."We did not leave the battlefield in the most difficult circumstances, and we will not leave it," he said.The security framework, brokered by Washington and signed on Friday, provides for a phased Israeli withdrawal from parts of southern Lebanon alongside the deployment of the Lebanese army. However, it also allows Israeli forces to remain temporarily in an expanded security zone.The agreement has drawn criticism beyond Hezbollah. The Amal movement, led by parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, denounced the framework as unbalanced, arguing that it entrenches conditions favouring Israel. The backlash comes as hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese, most of them Shi'ite Muslims, remain unable to return to homes in areas still occupied by Israeli forces.Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz welcomed the agreement, saying it allows Israel to maintain control of the designated security zone in southern Lebanon while preventing displaced residents from returning to those areas.Hostilities also continued despite the new agreement. Lebanon's state news agency reported that an Israeli drone struck Nabatieh al-Fawqa on Saturday, an area outside the security zone marked on maps released by Israel.The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out the strike using a drone because it had no troops in the immediate area. It said the attack targeted an individual who posed a threat to its forces, but did not provide further details or evidence.The latest developments come against the backdrop of a conflict that has displaced more than one million people in Lebanon and unfolded alongside the wider Iran war.Hezbollah and Iran have argued that Washington had already committed to ending hostilities in Lebanon under a memorandum of understanding signed two weeks ago as part of efforts to end the broader conflict.Qassem said that Iran-US memorandum of understanding, which he said guarantees Lebanon's territorial integrity, should form the basis for ending the fighting instead of the security agreement signed in Washington on Friday.Catch the latest world news and top headlines. Download the TOI App.