Sports

Hezbollah head rejects 'surrender' Israel-Lebanon deal

Hezbollah head rejects 'surrender' Israel-Lebanon deal

Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region.
Access unlimited content, as well as The Canberra Times app.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has rejected a US-brokered security agreement between ‌Lebanon and Israel a day after it was signed, describing it as a surrender to ‌Israel.

In the latest example of ongoing hostilities despite repeated ceasefires and agreements, Israel launched a drone strike ‌in Lebanon's south.

More than a million Lebanese have been driven from their homes by a conflict that has run in parallel with the wider Iran war.

Hezbollah and Iran say the United States pledged to end hostilities in Lebanon as part of its memorandum of understanding signed two weeks ‌ago to end ‌the wider ⁠war.

The framework agreed on Friday provides for a phased Israeli withdrawal ​from some parts of southern Lebanon, alongside the deployment of the Lebanese army.

But Israeli forces would be permitted to remain in an expanded security zone for the time being, pending further implementation.

In a statement, Qassem called it "null and void" and accused the Lebanese government of making unilateral ⁠concessions and undermining Lebanon's sovereignty.

He criticised provisions linking Israel's ‌withdrawal ​to Hezbollah's disarmament, saying they effectively legitimised Israel's military presence and crossed "all red lines".

The group would ​continue its armed ‌resistance, he added: "We did not leave the battlefield in the most difficult circumstances, and we ​will not leave it."