Hezbollah On the Run In Lebanon, But Puts Up a Brave Front

The new Lebanese government, headed by a Christian president, Joseph Aoun, and a Sunni prime minister, Nawaf Salam, has declared its determination to strip Hezbollah of all of its weaponry, as part of a plan to make the Lebanese Army the sole armed force in the country. This is an opportune time to undertake this effort. Hezbollah has been greatly weakened by the IDF, which has managed to destroy some 80-90% of the vast arsenal of rockets and missiles that Hezbollah so recently possessed. Furthermore, the Lebanese Army has been strengthened by the receipt of hundreds of millions of dollars in American weaponry. And the IDF has continued to bomb Hezbollah outposts, in south Beirut, in the Bekaa Valley, and in the territory between the Litani River and the border with Israel.

Now the Lebanese government has challenged Hezbollah, demanding that it surrender its weaponry — “give up your weapons or else!” — and Hezbollah, in response, has said that no power on earth will make it surrender its weapons. Already, the Lebanese National Army has said that in the area between the Litani River and the border with Israel, it has managed to seize 90% of Hezbollah’s weapons.

Now Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, has again reiterated his group’s intention not to surrender its arms. More on his response to the Lebanese government’s demand that it disarm can be found here: “Hezbollah chief Qassem says group will confront Israel, IDF ‘will not be able to remain in Lebanon,'” Jerusalem Post, August 25, 2025:

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said that Israel “will not be able to remain in Lebanon” while delivering a speech broadcast by Hezbollah-affiliated outlet Al Mayadeen on Monday.

The IDF “may occupy, kill, and destroy, but we will confront it so that it does not settle,” he added.

“This is within our capability. The role of resistance now is greater and stronger,” he continued.

Qassem also stated that the US is a danger to Lebanon, posing a threat to the country via “sabotage and sedition.”

We will not relinquish the “weapon that protects us from our enemy,” he continued.

The Lebanese government does not see the US as a danger to Lebanon. It is the US that has been supplying that government with hundreds of millions of dollars in military and civilian aid. It is the US that has been trying to help the Lebanese government free the country from the balaklavèd goose-stepping Hezbollah recruits who for so long have been the most powerful armed force in the country and have prevented the Lebanese National Army from exercising its power as the only legitimate armed force in the country.

“Those who want to disarm us are like those who seek to take our soul from us, and then they will witness our might,” he warned.

The Lebanese government must first ensure Israel complies with a November 27 ceasefire agreement before talks on a national defense strategy can take place, Qassem said, reaffirming the Iran-backed terror group’s refusal to disarm.

The ceasefire agreement between the IDF and Hezbollah required both parties to withdraw from the territory between the Litani River and the Lebanese border with Israel. However, Hezbollah never intended to honor the agreement, and not only did it refuse to pull out of some of its outposts, but it has managed to establish new ones. In response, the IDF also refused to pull out, and instead launched a bombing campaign against Hezbollah outposts, old and new, south of the Litani.

Qassem also discussed the important role that “resistance” plays to the terror group.

“Resistance is faith and will, it is nationalism and honor, it is pride and resilience, and it is a condition opposite to humiliation, surrender, and submission,” he said.

It is a “reaction to aggression, confronting it and obstructing its objectives,” he added.

Naim Qassem’s claim that Hezbollah is merely reacting to “aggression, confronting it and obstructing its objectives” is false. The IDF has always been reacting to Hezbollah’s aggression — all those missiles and drones the terror group launches into the northern Galilee are then responded to by IAF airstrikes on Hezbollah rocket launchers and bases, mostly in the Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut..

Qassem also commented on the alleged support that Hezbollah has among Lebanon’s population, claiming that the terror group possesses “more than half of the Lebanese people” as their “supporters and backers.”

Hezbollah is a Shia terror group in Lebanon that has relied in the past on weapons and money furnished by Shia Iran. With the collapse of the Iranian-backed Assad regime in Syria, Iran can no longer smuggle weapons through that country to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Christians and the Sunnis regard this Shia group with hatred, for it has brought the Lebanese nothing but grief, as its attacks on Israel have been responded to with devastating effectiveness by the IDF, causing great damage to Lebanese infrastructure. Hezbollah was also responsible for the “blast in Beirut” on August 4, 2020, which was the result of Hezbollah’s careless storing of 2750 tons of ammonium nitrates. The explosion resulted in 218 deaths, more than 6,000 wounded, and $15 billion in property damage. Finally, the bezonians of Hezbollah swagger around their heartland of southern Beirut, where their incessant flag-waving gun-toting parades are meant to impress and intimidate their political enemies.

Not a single Christian or Sunni Muslim in Lebanon supports Hezbollah, so that at most, if every Shi’a supported the terror group, that is only 29% of the Lebanese population. When Naim Qassem boasts that “more than half of the Lebanese people” are Hezbollah’s “backers and supporters,” he is simply lying, hoping to convince Lebanese of a nonexistent national solidarity with Hezbollah, when the terror group has earned the hatred not just of all the Christians and Sunnis, but of a great many Shi’a in Lebanon as well, those who are keenly aware of the destruction Hezbollah has brought down on the Lebanese. These Shia prefer that Hezbollah end its military adventurism and instead become a purely political group to represent domestic Shia interests, akin to Nabih Berri’s Amal movement.

This could still happen, if the IDF and the Lebanese National Army manage to destroy Hezbollah’s outposts south of the Litani, outposts which Hezbollah had promised to close down as part of its ceasefire agreement, and the group has to pull back to its last remaining redoubt in southern Beirut, making it an easier target for IDF airstrikes. Naim Qassem can boast and swagger, but his group is on the ropes, hated by at least 70% of Lebanese, and with its only ally, Iran, itself having been militarily devastated in its 12-day war with Israel, unable to come to its aid.