Hezbollah chief: Muslim world faces major US-led confrontation

By JNS STAFF

(JNS.org) – Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem claimed on Saturday that the Islamic world is facing a “major confrontation” led by the United States and its allies, the Iranian regime’s Press TV reported.

Hezbollah and Lebanese flags.

“The Muslim Ummah is confronting a major confrontation spearheaded by the tyrant United States, and supported by the West and savage Zionist regime [Israel],” Qassam was quoted as saying in an address to wounded terrorists.

The wounded terrorists “have followed the Righteous Path for the sake of safeguarding the homeland, liberation of occupied territories, and restoration of humanity,” he said, claiming that terrorists have thwarted at least 75,000 Israeli attempts to infiltrate Southern Lebanon.

“Your resilience in the course of the Battle of the Mighty Ones [Hezbollah’s ideological branding of its fight with Israel], and even before and after the confrontation, foiled Israel’s expansionist policies, frustrated its land expropriation schemes, and pulled the plug on the U.S. so-called ‘New Middle East’ project,” the leader of the Iranian terrorist proxy in Lebanon said.

He also paid respects to the Hezbollah terrorists wounded in Israel’s pager attack, referring, to the Sept. 17-18, 2024, operation in which thousands of booby-trapped pagers used by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria exploded simultaneously, killing dozens and wounding several thousand.

“Salutations to their brothers and families who stood by them, and to all those who treated them, supported them, and extended a helping hand,” Qassem said.

The Hezbollah chief sent his “greatest greetings” to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who according to opposition-affiliated reporting is in a fortified underground site in Tehran amid fears of a U.S. strike on regime targets following President Donald Trump’s threats to use military force against Iran if its security forces kill protesters.

Lebanon PM says international force needed after UNIFIL

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Saturday that his country will still require an international force in the south after the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission completes its mandated withdrawal in 2027, preferably under United Nations auspices because of its “impartiality and neutrality.”

He said any future deployment would likely combine observers and peacekeepers, citing Lebanon’s long “history of hostility” with Israel and ongoing tensions along the border, AFP reported.

Salam, speaking in Paris a day after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, also said that a second phase of Hezbollah’s disarmament process began “two weeks ago,” extending north from the Litani River to the Awali River, where the Iran-backed terrorist group retains significant power.

Acknowledging that Phase 2 has “different requirements” and that Hezbollah’s rhetoric has been “rather harsh,” he insisted Beirut remains committed to the plan. “We will not back down,” Salam said.