... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
on Friday accused the Lebanese government of "handing" the country to Israel by pushing for the group's disarmament, warning it would fight to keep its weapons.
Qassem spoke in a televised address several hours after meeting Iran's top security chief Ali Larijani, whose country has long backed the Lebanese gang.
Hezbollah emerged badly weakened from last year's war with Israel, and under U.S. pressure the Lebanese government has ordered the army to devise a plan to disarm the group by the end of the year.
Iran, whose so-called "axis of resistance" includes Hezbollah, has also suffered a series of setbacks, most recently in the war with Israel that saw the United States strike its nuclear sites.
"The government is implementing an American-Israeli order to end the resistance, even if it leads to civil war and internal strife," Qassem warned.
"The resistance will not surrender its weapons while aggression continues, occupation persists, and we will fight it... if necessary to confront this American-Israeli project no matter the cost," he said.
Qassem urged the government "not to hand over the country to an insatiable Israeli aggressor or an American tyrant with limitless greed."
He also said the government would "bear responsibility for any internal explosion and any destruction of Leb
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....," accusing it of "leading the country to ruin."
Hezbollah and its ally Amal Movement would not be organizing any street protests at this time, he said, while threatening to do so in future "across Lebanon" and "at the U.S. Embassy" in Awkar.
Before the war with Israel, Hezbollah was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military.
It long maintained it had to keep its arsenal in order to defend Lebanon from attack, but critics accused it of using its weapons for political leverage.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council chief Larijani was in Beirut this week, where he met Qassem as well as with President Joseph Aoun.
Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
has expressed its opposition to the government's disarmament plan, and has vowed to continue to provide support.
Aoun told Larijani that he rejected any interference in the country's internal affairs, branding as "unconstructive" Iran's statements on plans to disarm Hezbollah.