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Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah warned Sunday of “internal conflict” in Lebanon over the country’s agreement with Israel, saying the deal, which Hezbollah rejects, would not be implemented.
The agreement was signed in Washington on Friday after five rounds of talks and aims to pave the way to peace between Lebanon and Israel. It includes plans to disarm Hezbollah.
Fadlallah spoke a day after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call that the Lebanese state "will assume its responsibilities" in implementing the framework agreement.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said Saturday that the group would treat the deal as "null and void" and described it as "a surrender of sovereignty."
Speaking at a memorial ceremony, Fadlallah described the deal as an "agreement of humiliation and disgrace" signed by Lebanese authorities.
"The agreement of humiliation and disgrace signed by the authorities will never see the light of day and will not be implemented," he said.
"Our finger will remain on the trigger, we will continue our path of resistance to achieve our objectives, and we will exercise our legitimate right to defend our people," he added.
Fadlallah said what the authorities had done amounted to "sedition" aimed at pushing the country into chaos and shifting the conflict from one with Israel to an internal conflict.
The warning came after Hezbollah rejected the agreement, which seeks to formally end the state of war between Lebanon and Israel after decades of conflict.
According to the text of the deal shared by the U.S. State Department, Lebanon and Israel expressed their intent to "conclusively end the conflict, address its underlying causes and to therewith formally conclude any state of war between them."
The agreement sets up a process under which Lebanon's military is expected to "restore effective sovereign authority over all Lebanese territory, pending the verified disarmament of non-state armed groups."
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz, however, has insisted that Israeli troops would be able to stay in Lebanon as long as Hezbollah remained armed.
The agreement was reached in Washington after five rounds of talks and aims to create a path toward peace between the neighboring countries.
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Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a new attack on the country's south Sunday, saying "an Israeli warplane carried out an airstrike targeting the outskirts of the towns of Deir Seryan and Taybeh."
State media had also reported Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said one person was killed Saturday in an attack on the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa.
The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah members after detecting them in the Nabatieh area. It added that its troops had also "struck and dismantled a Hezbollah rocket launcher that posed a threat to them."
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the wider Middle East war in March with rocket fire aimed at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion.
The latest dispute over the Washington agreement comes as Lebanon faces pressure over the implementation of the framework deal, while Hezbollah continues to reject any plan that includes its disarmament.
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