Sheikh Naim Qassem speaks during an interview with Reuters in Beirut’s suburbs, June 6, 2022. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hezbollah’s new leader Naim Qassem on Wednesday (October 30, 2024) said the group would agree to a ceasefire with Israel under acceptable terms, but added that a viable deal has yet to be presented.

Qassem, who was named Hezbollah secretary-general on Tuesday (October 29), did not explicitly link a Lebanon ceasefire to an end to fighting in Gaza, a position previously held by the Iran-backed group.

“If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable,” Qassem said in a pre-recorded speech, his first since he was named the group’s new leader.

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But Hezbollah “will not beg for a ceasefire”, he added, noting that political efforts to secure a deal have yet to yield results.

“No project has been proposed that Israel agrees to and that we can discuss,” he said.

Also Read: List of Hezbollah, Hamas leaders Israel has assassinated since October 7, 2023

Qassem replaces Hassan Nasrallah who was assassinated by Israel on September 27 after more than 30 years at the helm.

He takes over as Hezbollah is locked in all-out war with Israel, which ramped up strikes against its strongholds and sent ground forces across the border last month.

“Get out of our land to reduce your losses. If you stay, you will pay more than you have ever paid in your life,” Qassem said, adding that Hezbollah could sustain fighting “for days, weeks and months”.

He acknowledged that Israel’s killing of Nasrallah and other senior Hezbollah figures dealt the group a “painful” blow.

But he said Hezbollah “has started to recover by filling the gaps, appointing alternative leaders and commencing work to organise everything”.

Qassem also pledged to uphold the war strategy laid down by his predecessor.

“My work programme is a continuation of the work programme of our leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” he said, pledging to press ahead with “the war plan that he developed”.

Qassem’s remarks came after Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said Israel’s security cabinet is discussing the terms of a truce with Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

“There are discussions, I think it will still take time,” Cohen told Israeli public radio.

According to Israel’s Channel 12 television, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with ministers on Tuesday (October 29) evening on Israel’s demands in return for a 60-day truce.

These include a Hezbollah pullback to north of the Litani river, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli frontier, the Lebanese army’s deployment along the border, an international intervention mechanism to enforce the truce and a guarantee that Israel will maintain freedom of action in case of threats.

According to Israeli media, U.S. President Joe Biden’s Middle East adviser Brett McGurk and special envoy Amos Hochstein will head to the region Wednesday to meet Mr. Netanyahu and other Israeli officials to discuss conditions for a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday said that Hezbollah’s new chief, Naim Qassem, was a “temporary appointment” and that he won’t last “long”.

His reaction came hours after the Iran-backed group announced that it had chosen deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s Beirut last month.

“Temporary appointment. Not for long,” Gallant wrote in a post on X and posted a photograph of Qassem.

In a separate post in Hebrew, he wrote that the “countdown has begun”.

Temporary appointment.
Not for long. pic.twitter.com/ONu0GveApi

— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) October 29, 2024

Earlier this month, an Israeli strike had killed Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council who was initially tipped to succeed Nasrallah, who was killed on September 27.

Who Is New Hezbollah Chief Naim Qassem

Naim Qassem was born in Beirut in 1953 to a family from the village of Kfar Fila on the border with Israel.

He was one of Hezbollah’s founders in 1982 and had been the group’s deputy secretary general since 1991, the year before Nasrallah took charge.

The 71-year-old was the most senior Hezbollah official to continue making public appearances after Nasrallah largely went into hiding after the group’s 2006 war with Israel.

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting across the Lebanese border since the war in Gaza erupted after Hamas attacked Israeli towns on October 7 last year.

Since September 23, Israel has ramped up strikes on Hezbollah strongholds and sent in ground forces while killing many members of the group’s top leadership.

According to reports, the Israel-Hezbollah war has so far killed more than 1,700 people in Lebanon since September 23.. Israel’s military says it has lost 37 soldiers in Lebanon since it began ground operations there on September 30.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah elected its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem to succeed former head Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday.

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)