Hezbollah’s new leader Naim Qassem said during his second speech as secretary-general that the resistance group is in a “defensive state” and will thwart Israeli plans for Lebanon, vowing that nowhere in Israel is safe from missile and drone attacks.
“We have now reached an Israeli aggressive war on Lebanon that has been going on for a month and ten days. It is no longer important how the war started or what pretexts caused it. What is important is that we are facing an Israeli aggression,” Qassem said.
The Lebanese resistance is “now in a defensive state” and is confronting “this aggression and its expansionist goals,” he added.
These goals include “ending Hezbollah’s presence,” while “the second step is to occupy Lebanon, even if from a distance – from the air, and by threatening, and making Lebanon similar to the West Bank,” referring to Tel Aviv’s ambition for unrestricted access to Lebanese territory and airspace. “The third is to [redraw] the map of the [region].”
“Netanyahu wanted these steps, and he started his war on Lebanon to accomplish the first step."
Qassem praised the resistance fighters on the ground, confronting Israeli army incursions into south Lebanon, which began at the very start of last month and have since completely failed to achieve Tel Aviv’s goal of pushing away Hezbollah from the border and securing the return of settlers to its north.