The leader of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, on Sunday welcomed a possible deal between Iran and the United States to end their war. But he rejected direct talks between Israel and Lebanon and called for the Lebanese people to take to the streets.
“We hope that a full agreement to cease hostilities will be reached and that this agreement will include us,” Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, said in a speech.
At the same time, Mr. Qassem condemned the Lebanese government for participating in direct negotiations with Israel, brokered by the United States, to end the fighting in Lebanon. Those talks, he said, benefit only Israel.
“The people have the right to take to the streets and bring down the government in confronting the American-Israeli project,” Mr. Qassem said. He also rejected the Lebanese government’s calls for Hezbollah to disarm as part of any peace agreement.
The speech drew the ire of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “The United States condemns in the strongest terms Hezbollah’s reckless call to overthrow Lebanon’s democratically elected government,” Mr. Rubio said in a statement on Sunday.
Mr. Rubio said the Lebanese government “is working to deliver recovery, reconstruction, international assistance and a stable future for its citizens with the full support of the United States,” while “Hezbollah, by contrast, is actively trying to drag Lebanon back into chaos and destruction.”
After the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, Hezbollah fired on Israel in solidarity with its patron. Since then, the conflict in Lebanon has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. Fighting has continued despite a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that took effect last month.
It is not yet clear whether any agreement between Iran and the United States will extend to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Several Iranian officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity on Saturday, suggested that it would.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Sunday that President Trump had “reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against threats on every front, including Lebanon.”
How any deal between Iran and the United States would address the fundamental issues in the conflict in Lebanon — among them the disarming of Hezbollah and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Lebanese border territory they now occupy — was unclear.
In his speech, Mr. Qassem called on the Lebanese government to abandon its negotiations with Israel and to resist American demands that Hezbollah disarm. He also said that American sanctions will not weaken Hezbollah.
The United States last week announced sanctions against Lebanese officials it said were affiliated with the militant group. It said they were “obstructing the peace process” and “impeding Hezbollah’s disarmament.”
On Sunday, Mr. Rubio said the group’s “threats of violence and overthrow will not be allowed to succeed.”
Dayana Iwaza contributed reporting from Lebanon.
