Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has welcomed Republican setbacks in US midterm elections last week and a lacklustre showing for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israeli polls, calling them a boon for Lebanon.
During a speech on Wednesday honouring members of the group killed by Israel, along with their families, Qassem described the elections in the US as an “earthquake” and the Israeli elections as a “defeat”. The bloc of Netanyahu, an arch-nemesis of the group, fell short of the 61 seats it needed to stay in power after the October 27 vote.
Qassem said the results were good for Lebanon and a signal that the country should resist the Trump administration’s push to disarm the group.
“Come, let us rebuild our country together, save it from the darkness of failure, and protect it from the empty rhetoric of those who sow discord and those who rely on American tutelage,” he said in a video-link address.
“Lebanon belongs to all of us. We are partners in building it and sharing the cost of protecting its sovereignty.”
Iran-backed Hezbollah is locked in a standoff with US-backed Lebanese President Joseph Aoun over whether it will relinquish its arms, in a move Washington seeks but the group says would be a surrender to Israel.
The Hezbollah leader insisted it would not hand over its weapons and cited a continued Israeli military occupation over parts of the country’s south.
“There will be no state monopoly on the resistance’s weapons, no regulation, no prohibition, and no disarmament under Israeli occupation,” Qassem said.
The secretary-general assumed the role after Israel assassinated former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his successor Hashem Safieddine in 2024.
Sparking months of ongoing war, the US and Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran in February, assassinating Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Hezbollah’s retaliation by firing missiles and drones into Israel led to weeks of intense Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, in which more than 4,300 people were killed, Lebanese authorities say, and around a million were displaced, according to the United Nations.
Qassem praised Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz for causing a spike in global oil prices and suspending shipping routes, saying it would weaken American and Israeli influence in the region.
US President Donald Trump has also acknowledged the role of the Iran war and the rise in fuel prices it stoked in last week’s electoral drubbing for Republicans, as did US Vice President and likely 2028 electoral hopeful JD Vance.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so,” Vance said last week.
Qassem also warned against Lebanese authorities making commitments and deals that serve Israeli goals and urged them to focus on domestic issues.
“Why are you binding yourselves before the world to positions that serve the Israeli project?” he asked.
Israel continues to occupy large swathes of southern Lebanon and has decimated dozens of the roughly 60 villages and towns it occupies.
Although Israel and Lebanon negotiated a ceasefire with US mediation in June, Israel continues to bomb south Lebanon.
