Hezbollah Furious That Lebanon Might Stop Letting Hezbollah Run Lebanon

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem is having a rough weekend. The terror group's secretary general blasted the newly signed Israel-Lebanon framework agreement as "null," a "humiliation," and an outrageous assault on the sacred tradition of heavily armed militias operating their own private state inside another state.

Apparently, nothing says "national sovereignty" quite like taking orders from Tehran while stockpiling rockets in civilian neighborhoods.

Speaking on Saturday, Qassem declared that any effort to tie Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Hezbollah giving up its arsenal crossed "all red lines." Translation: Israel is expected to leave, but Hezbollah is expected to keep enough missiles to redecorate northern Israel whenever the mood strikes.

“We say to the Lebanese authorities, it is time for you to retract your sins that are destroying Lebanon,” Qassem asserted.

That is certainly one way to describe the situation. Another would be to ask whether the organization that has dragged Lebanon into repeated wars, frightened away investors, and treated the country's sovereignty like an optional suggestion is perhaps looking in the wrong mirror.

The framework agreement, signed Friday by the United States, Israel, and Lebanon after days of negotiations in Washington, lays out a step by step plan to dismantle Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure, disarm the group, and allow the IDF to withdraw from southern Lebanon as the threat disappears.

In other words, somebody finally proposed the radical idea that a country's army should be the country's army.

The agreement also calls for the United States to strengthen the Lebanese Armed Forces so the nation's military, instead of an Iranian proxy, can provide security within Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the deal, calling it “a major achievement for the State of Israel” in a public address.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun welcomed the agreement as “the first step on the path to restoring Lebanon's sovereignty” in a post on X.

Qassem, meanwhile, appears to believe Lebanese sovereignty is best preserved by ensuring Hezbollah remains more heavily armed than the Lebanese government itself. It is a fascinating constitutional theory, albeit one that seems to exist nowhere outside the offices of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

For years Hezbollah has insisted it is merely defending Lebanon. Now that someone has suggested Lebanon might defend itself, Hezbollah suddenly finds the proposal deeply offensive.

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