DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem on Thursday said the outcome of the direct negotiations between Beirut and Israel was “futile, humiliating, and disgraceful for Lebanon” and has been “completely rejected by broad segments of the Lebanese people.”

Speaking during a speech marking the commemoration of the death of Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, Qassem said the “Washington declaration” outlined principles through which the United States and Israel seek Lebanon’s submission to the project of a “Greater Israel.”

The day prior, Israel and Lebanon agreed on a “complete cessation” of hostilities and the withdrawal of Hezbollah from southern Lebanon after a US-mediated negotiating process that Hezbollah repeatedly criticized.

The deal also calls for the establishment of pilot zones under the exclusive control of the Lebanese Armed Forces and is intended to pave the way for a broader agreement through further dialogue, essentially aiming to achieve a US-Israeli demand for the Lebanese state to maintain a monopoly on arms to the detriment of the Iran-backed militant group.

Qassem said that making the disarmament of Hezbollah the main objective of any agreement would amount to “eliminating Lebanon’s strength and pose an existential threat” to its people.

Qassem described the declaration as an effort to create divisions among the Lebanese and allow Israel to achieve politically what it failed to achieve through war.

“We are concerned only with ending the comprehensive aggression through a ceasefire and Israel's withdrawal,” Qassem said, adding that any ceasefire must be comprehensive and that there should be “no distinction between southern Lebanon and the rest of the country.”

“As long as the occupation remains, the resistance will continue,” he said.

Qassem added that Hezbollah had “not given any commitment to anyone not to resist aggression or respond to it,” warning that “as long as the aggression continues, we will confront it with all our strength.”

He also said that as long as Lebanese villages remain under attack and residents continue to face bombardment and killings, “the [Israeli] settlements will not be safe.”

Qassem said the primary objective should be Lebanese sovereignty, which he said could only be achieved through ending Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese territory, the deployment of the Lebanese army south of the Litani River and the release of prisoners.

He rejected “any linkage between the existence of the resistance and ending the aggression or Israel’s withdrawal,” and stressed that no external party had the right to interfere in Lebanon’s internal affairs.

The Hezbollah leader also called on Lebanese officials to end what he described as “this farce and humiliation known as direct negotiations” and urged them to work toward national unity in confronting Israeli attacks.

In the same speech, Qassem praised Iran, saying that despite challenges since the 1979 Iranian revolution, it had advanced on all fronts and supported liberation movements.

He thanked Tehran for supporting Hezbollah in its confrontation with Israel and said the group had drawn inspiration from the thought of Khomeini while fighting “for our land and our people.”