Latest news with #NaimQassem
Asharq Al-Awsat
an hour ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Katz Warns Hezbollah Against Joining Conflict with Iran
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon's Hezbollah to exercise caution on Friday, saying Israel's patience with "terrorists" who threaten it had worn thin. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Thursday that the Lebanese group would act as it saw fit in the face of what he called "brutal Israeli-American aggression" against Iran. In other statements, the group has made no explicit pledge to join the fighting. But it has condemned Israel's surprise strikes on Iran that sparked the conflict and endorsed Iran's missile barrages over Israel. "I suggest the Lebanese proxy be cautious and understand that Israel has lost patience with terrorists who threaten it,' Katz said in a statement on Friday, adding that "if there is terrorism -- there will be no Hezbollah." Qassem 'is not learning a lesson from his predecessors and is threatening to act against Israel in accordance with the Iranian dictator's orders,' Katz stated. He said on Thursday that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, 'cannot continue to exist.'
Ya Libnan
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Ya Libnan
Berri confirms that Hezbollah will not participate in the war, dismisses Qassem's remarks
Visitors to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told Al Jadeed TV that 'the statement attributed to Berri that Hezbollah will not participate in the war is confirmed, while the statement of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem is a principled position that the party can only take because it is in solidarity with Iran.' This came after Qassem announced that the party is not neutral and is acting as it sees fit in confronting the war on Iran. Berri's visitors expressed his surprise at some people's description of Sheikh Naim Qassem speech as if it were a response to his remarks. The visitors added that 'Berri confirmed to US Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrak that Lebanon is prepared to implement Resolution 1701, but Israel is preventing its implementation.' The visitors also added that 'Barrak will visit former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt to apologize for what former US Envoy Morgan Ortagus had previously said to him,' when she told him that drugs were harmful in response to his criticism of her. Qassem didn't learn his lesson In a related development Israeli Defense minister Israel Katz blasted Qassems speech , saying he didn't learn his lesson El Nashra
Nahar Net
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Lebanese officials say war decision in state's hand after Qassem's remarks
by Naharnet Newsdesk 20 June 2025, 12:38 The decisions of war and peace in Lebanon 'belong only to the state,' official Lebanese sources stressed Friday, after Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Hezbollah is 'not neutral' in the war between Israel and Iran and would act as it sees fit. 'Lebanon is against being dragged into the war between Iran and Israel,' the sources told Al-Arabiya's Al-Hadath channel. Qassem's remarks came after U.S. envoy Tom Barrack warned that Hezbollah's involvement in the war would be a 'very bad decision' and after Speaker Nabih Berri said that "Lebanon will '200%' not enter the war because it … would pay the price and because Iran does not need us."
Gulf Today
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Israeli defence minister warns Hezbollah against joining conflict with Iran
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon's Hezbollah to exercise caution on Friday, saying Israel's patience with "terrorists" who threaten it had worn thin. The head of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said on Thursday that the Lebanese group would act as it saw fit in the face of what he called "brutal Israeli-American aggression" against Iran. In other statements, the group has made no explicit pledge to join the fighting and a Hezbollah official told Reuters last week that the group did not intend to initiate attacks against Israel. Reuters
New York Post
4 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Israel warns Hezbollah to stay out of its fight against Iran: ‘Leader hasn't learned from his predecessors'
Israel's defense minister on Friday warned Hezbollah to stay out of its fight against Iran, saying that the terror group's leader 'hasn't learned from his predecessors.' 'I suggest that the Lebanese proxy be careful, and understand that Israel has lost patience with the terrorists who threaten it,' Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after Hezbollah leadership condemned Israel's airstrikes on Iran, according to the Times of Israel. 'The Hezbollah leader hasn't learned from his predecessors and is threatening to act against Israel,' he said about the Iranian proxy groups' former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israeli airstrikes in September. 5 Lebanon's Hezbollah deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, speaks during a rally supporting Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 13, 2023. REUTERS Hezbollah's leader, Naim Qassem, who succeeded Nasrallah in October, said Thursday that the terror group would 'act as we see fit' reading the conflict between Israel and Iran. The group declared it was standing in full solidarity with Iran and that threats against Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would lead to 'disastrous consequences.' 'Threats to assassinate [Khamenei] are foolish and reckless, and will have disastrous consequences… Merely uttering them is an offense to hundreds of millions of believers and those connected to Islam, and it is utterly reprehensible. Today, we are more determined and united around him,' Hezbollah declared. Israel began to conduct airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites and its missile capabilities on June 13 after fears that their longtime enemy, which has repeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish state, was close to creating a nuclear weapon. Iran retaliated with a barrage of missiles and drone strikes on Israel — fully igniting the deadly conflict between the two Middle Eastern nations. 5 Israel's Foreign Affairs Minister, Israel Katz, listens during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the war in Gaza, on March 11, 2024. AP On Thursday, Iran launched a missile barrage that damaged the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba and hit a high-rise and several other residential buildings near Tel Aviv. At least 240 people were wounded by the Iranian missiles, four of them seriously, Israel's Health Ministry said. Early Friday morning, Israeli officials warned of an incoming barrage of missiles from Iran, with at least one making a strike on the nation's largest southern city, Beersheba. In Iran, Israeli air attacks have killed 639 people, including some of the nation's top military commanders and nuclear scientists. 5 Smoke billows from a building at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel following an Iranian missile attack on June 19, 2025. AFP via Getty Images 5 Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi lays a wreath of flowers at the grave of slain Lebanese Hezbollah's Leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in September 2024, at his mausoleum in Beirut's southern suburbs on June 3, 2025. AFP via Getty Images Fears that the fighting between Iran and Israel will continue to escalate prompted US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack to fly to Beirut on Thursday and meet with Lebanese officials. Barrack told Lebanon's Speaker of Parliament and ally of Hezbollah, Nabih Berri, it would be a 'very bad decision' if the terror that if the terror organization were to attack Israel. 'I can say on behalf of President (Donald) Trump, which he has been very clear in expressing as has Special Envoy (Steve) Witkoff: that would be a very, very, very bad decision,' Barrack said. President Trump said Thursday he would make his final decision on whether to strike Iran in the 'next two weeks,' because he's still hoping for negotiations. 5 Demonstrators wave Iranian and Hezbollah flags as one holds up a poster of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally marking the Muslim Shiite holiday of Eid al-Ghadir, which commemorates the Prophet Muhammad naming his successor, Ali, who is revered as the first Shiite imam, in Tehran, Iran, on June 14, 2025. AP 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, reading a statement directly from Trump during her daily briefing. Leavitt also stressed that Iran currently has the capability of creating a nuclear weapon. 'Iran has all that it needs to keep a nuclear weapon,' Leavitt said. 'All they need is a decision from the Supreme Leader to do that.' Iran said Friday it would refuse to discuss its nuclear program while under Israeli attack. Israel has asked for US involvement, particularly to use its bunker-busting bombs on the Fordow nuclear facility hidden deep in an Iranian mountain. On Friday, foreign ministers from the European Union, including Britain, France, and Germany, are set to meet with Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Geneva in hopes of de-escalating the conflict. with Post wires
