BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem vowed on Friday to fight government plans to disarm his group, with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accusing him of making “unacceptable threats to unleash civil war”.

Qassem gave a televised address after meeting Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, whose country has long backed the Lebanese group.

Hezbollah emerged badly weakened from last year’s confrontation with Israel, and the Lebanese government — under US pressure — has ordered the army to draw up a plan to disarm the group by the end of the year.

Iran has also suffered a series of setbacks, most recently in its own war with Israel, which also saw the United States strike its nuclear facilities.

“The government is implementing an Ameri­can-Israeli order to end the resistance, even if it leads to civil war and internal strife,” Qassem said.

“The resistance will not surrender its weapons while aggression continues, occupation persists, and we will fight it... if necessary to confront this American-Israeli project no matter the cost.”

He urged the government “not to hand over the country to an insatiable Israeli aggressor or an American tyrant with limitless greed”, adding the state would “bear responsibility for any internal explosion and any destruction of Lebanon”.

Prime Minister Salam later denounced the remarks, saying on X that they “constitute an implicit threat of civil war”.

He added that “any threat or intimidation related to such a war is totally unacceptable”.

Salam also hit back at Hezbollah’s characterisation of the disarmament push as an American-Israeli effort.

“Our decisions are purely Lebanese, made by our cabinet, and no one tells us what to do,” he said.

“The Lebanese have the right to stability and security... without which the country will not be able to recover, and no reconstruction or investment will take place.”

Hezbollah was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military before last year.

It long maintained it had to keep its arsenal in order to defend Lebanon from attack, but critics accused it of using its weapons for political leverage.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2025