Hezbollah says it is ready for any Israeli land invasion in Lebanon

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00:00Deputy leader of Hezbollah was speaking as well.

00:03Naeem Qasim said the group's fighters are ready should Israel launch a ground offensive.

00:10He went on to claim that Israel is ready for a long fight with Hezbollah despite

00:15a devastating few weeks for the Lebanese militant group culminating

00:19with the killing of Hassan Nasrallah over the weekend.

00:30We are ready for any scenario.

00:34If Israel decides to launch a ground invasion,

00:37our forces, the forces of the resistance will be ready on the ground.

00:45We will choose a secretary general of the party shortly and in accordance with the

00:51structures of the organization, designate a new chief to the post of leader.

01:00Let's go live to Beirut then.

01:01Rawad Taha is our correspondent covering developments for us.

01:05Rawad, this was the first time we've heard from a senior official in Hezbollah

01:09publicly since the killing of Hassan Nasrallah.

01:13What did you make of the message today from Naeem Qasim?

01:18Now Hezbollah supporters were waiting to hear from any official, whether the new secretary

01:24general or the deputy secretary general of Nasrallah himself, Naeem Qasim.

01:29We heard that speech today as around noontime delivered across different TV channels in

01:35Lebanon.

01:36What is important is the look and feel first of that speech.

01:39Now we know for a fact that Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, used to

01:43deliver his speeches in a very well-organized manner with a backdrop or the logo of the

01:49commemorated, for example, a specific leader with a picture behind him in high resolution.

01:54Now this looks like something different.

01:56This looked like it's a video that was possibly shot in some sort of a house, in a place,

02:04in front of a closet, as we're seeing.

02:06So first, the aesthetics of this speech was very different.

02:09And that in itself is already telling.

02:12When it comes to the content of that speech in particular, it was mostly what everyone

02:17expected.

02:18Hezbollah's not backing off from the goals set by Hassan Nasrallah himself before his

02:22assassination.

02:23People were looking to see whether Hezbollah would be ready for a ceasefire after all the

02:28blows it took over the past week from the Beijer's attacks, the Rafiq Abdi attacks,

02:33the assassination of the entire command of the Ridwan force, as well as the assassination

02:38of Nasrallah himself.

02:39Yet Naeem Asim insisted that Hezbollah is there.

02:43It's there to fight.

02:44It's still defending Gaza.

02:46And it will, according to their own words, defend Lebanon.

02:50So no ceasefire from Hezbollah's end in the near future, at least according to what Naeem

02:55Asim, the deputy, has said, and that they are ready for any potential ground invasion

03:00into Lebanon.

03:01Now, whether Hezbollah is able to regroup as an organization, is it in a state of disarray?

03:08Is its organization organized enough to withhold any ground invasion, similar to what it did

03:14to a certain extent in the 2006 July war, the second Lebanon war, is something that

03:18we need to question.

03:20OK, so that's the view, then, of Hezbollah today, of Naeem Asim, talking about the fact

03:24that that group is not interested at the moment in a ceasefire with Israel.

03:29I understand, though, there's been quite a different message today from top political

03:34leaders in Lebanon, including the prime minister, Najib Mikrati, and the speaker of parliament,

03:39Nabi Berri.

03:41Indeed.

03:42And in particular, what is very important is the stance that Nabi Berri, the speaker

03:46of parliament, has taken, given the fact that Nabi Berri has great mass support within

03:52the Shia population.

03:54Now, Hezbollah and the Amal movement, which the speaker of parliament, Nabi Berri, heads

04:00both, share some sort of an alliance and a grip on the Shia population in Lebanon.

04:06We've heard Naeem Asim saying that Hezbollah does not want a ceasefire.

04:10It's ready to fight this war.

04:12On the other hand, we saw that speaker Berri said he is ready for a ceasefire, for full

04:18implementation of the 1701 UN resolution, to deploy the Lebanese army south of the Litani

04:25River, and that he himself and the prime minister, the caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikrati,

04:30are working to find a sort of diplomatic solution.

04:33This is possibly the first time since the beginning of the conflict that we saw a divergence

04:37of positions between the official stance of the Lebanese government and Hezbollah.

04:41In the past, the Lebanese government's stance was any de-escalation in the region should

04:46be global, thus de-escalation in Lebanon should be coupled with de-escalation in Gaza.

04:51What is different today is that Lebanese leaders, at least caretaker prime minister Najib Mikrati,

04:56as long as speaker of parliament Berri, are potentially ready for some sort of a de-escalation

05:01on the Lebanese government, and they are ready to secure a deal with Israel disregarding what's

05:06going on in Gaza and the potential of any ceasefire in Gaza.

05:10Now, is that possible without Hezbollah's approval? That is also a question.

05:16Rawad Taha, live in Beirut. Thanks very much indeed.

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