Hezbollah on the anniversary of the May 17 Agreement: Rejection of any negotiating track with Israel and warning against “dangerous concessions”

Hezbollah issued the following statement on the anniversary of May 17:

The 43rd anniversary of the agreement of humiliation and disgrace on May 17, 1983, comes amid extremely dangerous Lebanese and regional circumstances, due to the escalating American-Israeli aggression against our region and our country, while the Zionist enemy continues to occupy our land and persist in crimes of killing, destruction, and bulldozing parts of our country, especially in the south, along with the complete violation of our airspace and waters and the roaming assassinations of civilians and resistance fighters from among the sons of the الوطن.

Amid attempts to reproduce something even more dangerous and deviant than the May 17 Agreement through talk of a full and comprehensive peace agreement between the Lebanese authorities and the Zionist entity, the enemy of the land, the people, the culture, and the history, the Lebanese authorities would have strayed far and cast aside the lessons and examples of history, absolved the enemy of its aggression and occupation, and dealt with it as though it were a peaceful, recognized entity, in a clear, explicit, and scandalous violation of the Lebanese Constitution and laws, and in complete denial of Lebanon’s history, culture, the sacrifices of its people, the steadfastness and resilience of its population, and the greatness of its resistance.

In light of these dangerous developments, Hezbollah stresses the following:

First, Hezbollah completely rejects any dictates, pressures, or external tutelage, American or otherwise, that seek to forcibly impose on Lebanon a path and fate that stab at its sovereignty, independence, and dignity, and that conflict with the most basic national constants and principles on which all Lebanese are supposed to agree.

What enemy leaders openly declare regarding their settlement projects in Lebanese territory confirms the enemy’s entrenched ambitions in our land, waters, and natural resources, and that it seeks to strip Lebanon of its points of strength and its resources. Lebanon’s acceptance of direct negotiations serves to reinforce and increase Israeli gains at Lebanon’s and its people’s expense.

Second, we call on the Lebanese authorities not to go too far in deviant choices with the enemy, given the dangerous repercussions this issue carries for stability in Lebanon as a state and society. We also call on them to halt the series of gratuitous concessions and the scenario of squandering rights and the nation’s dignity, as they are entrusted with safeguarding them by law. We demand that they place the national interest first and abandon the illusion that a peace agreement can be reached with this usurping, covetous, occupying enemy.

Third, the major question posed today by Lebanese in general, and by the people of the south in particular, to the Lebanese authorities is: What has its engagement in this path of concessions since the ceasefire agreement on 27-11-2024 achieved for Lebanon? What did its sinful decisions on August 5 and August 7 achieve, along with accepting the participation of a civilian in the mechanism and then moving to direct negotiations? And what has Lebanon and its people gained from this path other than more pressure, concessions, aggression, and destruction?

The authorities adopted this course under the pretext that it was the only way to secure a ceasefire and stop Israeli attacks, despite the constitutional violations surrounding this option and the absence of national consensus over it. Today, after a month of pursuing this approach, what has it achieved for Lebanon? Instead of retreating from this option, it is preparing to move toward a political and security track, adding to the chain of gratuitous concessions it offers the enemy, which responds after every round of negotiations by escalating its attacks, expanding the scope of its targeting of Lebanese villages and towns, and continuing to kill Lebanese people, destroy their homes, and violate Lebanese sovereignty, to the point that many Lebanese now see the extension of the ceasefire through this path as an extension of the continuation of their killing and as cover for aggression against them and their homeland.

Fourth, we call on the Lebanese authorities to cooperate within the framework of national consensus in order to achieve the national constants represented by ensuring the enemy’s full withdrawal from all Lebanese territory, bringing aggression to a final and complete halt, freeing our heroic prisoners, ensuring the immediate return of our people to their villages and towns with dignity and honor, and reconstruction without restrictions, conditions, or obstacles of any kind.

Fifth, Hezbollah affirms that the Zionist occupation will never be able to settle on our land in the presence of this valiant resistance, its heroic fighters, its sacrificing and courageous people, all national forces, and all honorable free people of this country from all sects and regions.

The dawn of liberation, freedom, and full independence will rise, sooner or later, and Lebanon will return sovereign, free, and independent.”