World
Hezbollah says Israel-Lebanon agreement ‘null and void,’ as its allies threaten civil war
Hezbollah’s leader on Saturday pilloried the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement signed in Washington as “null and void” and a surrender of Lebanon’s sovereignty, with the terror group’s top ally in Beirut’s parliament going as far as calling it an “incitement to civil war.”
The deal Beirut and Jerusalem signed Friday, the result of five rounds of talks in the US capital, is intended to pave the way for an eventual peace agreement. It includes a pilot effort in which Lebanese soldiers will take control of some areas held by Israeli troops, as well as a process aimed at disarming Hezbollah.
Rejecting the agreement, the terror group’s chief Naim Qassem called it a “humiliation” and and said it should be replaced by the Iran-US memorandum of understanding, which was signed the week before in Switzerland, and which linked the ceasefire in Lebanon with the truce between Iran and the US — a move that greatly concerned Israel.
In a statement, Qassem said that any attempt to link Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon to the terror group’s disarmament crossed “red lines.”
He further accused Lebanese authorities of “legitimizing” Israeli occupation through this “grave blunder,” which temporarily leaves much of southern Lebanon in Israeli military control, until the areas are verified to be cleared of Hezbollah and its infrastructure and handed over to the Lebanese military.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, called the deal signed with Israel “incitement to civil war,” and warned against its implementation.
Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad, who leads the terror group’s Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc in parliament, said the agreement showed “the Lebanese authority’s complete submission to America and the Zionist enemy.”
Raad added that by facilitating the deal, the US violated its “explicit commitment to Iran regarding its responsibility to pressure Israel to withdraw completely from Lebanon and respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Additionally, Hezbollah’s Lawyers’ Association said the deal, which states that Israel and Lebanon “affirm the right of each state to exist in peace,” was a violation of Lebanon’s constitution, which they said “considers Zionism to be a challenge to human dignity” and states “that it is necessary to work to eliminate it.”
The legal union added that the terms allowing Israeli troops to maintain temporary control of Lebanese territory “constitutes a coup against the constitutional obligations related to preserving the independence of the homeland and the integrity of its territories.
“We warn the Lebanese authorities against this dangerous and unprecedented violation of the constitution,” the group said, calling on Beirut “to immediately reverse this decision, stop direct negotiations, and adhere to the option of resistance as a natural, constitutional, and law-based option for protecting and liberating the land.”
Also joining in on the threats to the Lebanese government were the Houthis in Yemen, a fellow Iran-backed proxy terror organization, with a senior Houthi official saying Saturday that “the inevitable outcome of this agreement will be one of two scenarios: a devastating Lebanese civil war or a direct Zionist occupation of Lebanon.”
“Therefore, the Lebanese people have the right to overthrow this puppet government by any means possible,” the Houthi official added.
In Beirut, Hezbollah supporters took to the streets Friday night to protest the agreement.
In western Beirut’s Hamra street, 48-year-old Ahmad Shamas told AFP on Saturday that “the agreement reached is a humiliating and shameful one.”
Another local, Husam Beiruiti, 43, wasn’t ready to write the agreement off, as he saw no other solution.
“I don’t think it will stop the Israeli aggression. They say it will happen in the future. Let’s wait and see what this agreement achieves,” he added.
Not everyone in Lebanon came out against the deal, however, with the Maronite Christian Kataeb Party leader and MP Samy Gemayel congratulating Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam for the “achievement accomplished by the Lebanese state.”
I express my congratulations to the President of the Republic @LBpresidency, the Prime Minister @nawafsalam, and the Lebanese negotiating delegation on this achievement accomplished by the Lebanese state. I also extend my thanks to the #UnitedStates of America for sponsoring…
— Samy Gemayel (@samygemayel) June 27, 2026
“The importance of this agreement lies in the fact that it has affirmed Lebanon’s right to live in peace and established a path toward achieving that goal,” Gemayel said in a post on X.
“The Lebanese state has demonstrated that, when it negotiates on behalf of Lebanon and from its legitimate position, it is capable of securing the interests of the Lebanese people,” he said.
