Naim Qassem (Secretary-General, Hezbollah) — "Day of the Martyr" address, 11 Nov 2025 (full text on Hezbollah's Al-Manar): frames demands to disarm Hezbollah as escalating "pretexts" ultimately aimed at the movement's very existence, and calls on the Lebanese government to pursue national sovereignty while rejecting "American dictates."

ما بقى نزع السلاح ذريعة، لأنه الآن طلعوا لنا بذريعة جديدة: «حزب الله يستعيد قدرته، يتسلّح من جديد، لا يسمحون باستعادة القدرة». حسناً، لا، هناك شيء آخر؟ «حزب الله يتموّل، حزب الله يحصل على المال، والمال يعطيه قوة». يعني ساعة ذريعة نزع السلاح، وساعة ذريعة استعادة القدرة، وساعة ذريعة وجود التمويل، وبعد شوي سيقولون: الذريعة الحقيقية هي أصل وجود هذا الكيان، وهذا المجتمع، وهذه البيئة، وهؤلاء الأطفال الذين سيصبحون كبارًا في المستقبل. لأن إشكالهم على أصل الوجود، وليس إشكالهم على هذه الذرائع المختلفة، هذه لن تنتهي كذرائع.

لماذا لا تضع الحكومة اللبنانية خطة استعادة السيادة الوطنية من ضمن جدول أعمالها، وتعمل جدولًا زمنيًّا، وتطلب كل شهر من الجيش اللبناني والأجهزة المعنية أن يقدموا تقريرًا: “أين أصبحنا في استعادة السيادة الوطنية؟”، وأيضًا أن يضعوا برنامجًا بعدم تطبيق الإملاءات الأمريكية وعدم الانبطاح أمامها؟

Declared positions of Naim Qassem, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, from his address at the movement's "Day of the Martyr" (Yawm al-Shahid) commemoration on 11 November 2025 — about a year after the 2024 Israel–Hezbollah war and the 27 November 2024 ceasefire. (Qassem became Hezbollah's Secretary-General in October 2024, succeeding Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in September 2024. Full text published by Hezbollah's own Al-Manar channel; distinct from his 18 April 2025 address already on file.)

Translation:
"Disarmament is no longer [even] a pretext, because now they have come up with a new pretext: 'Hezbollah is restoring its capability, rearming again — they won't allow it to restore its capability.' Fine — is there something else? 'Hezbollah is being financed, Hezbollah is getting money, and money gives it strength.' So one moment the pretext is disarmament, another the pretext is restoring capability, another the pretext is the existence of financing — and shortly they will say: the real pretext is the very existence of this entity, this society, this community, and these children who will grow up in the future. Because their problem is with [our] very existence, not with these various pretexts; these will never run out as pretexts."

"Why does the Lebanese government not put a plan to restore national sovereignty on its agenda, set a timetable, and ask the Lebanese army and the relevant agencies each month to submit a report — 'Where have we reached in restoring national sovereignty?' — and also lay out a program of not implementing American dictates and not prostrating before them?"

[Axes: regime-stance, west-alignment, regional-stance, palestinian-question. Qassem frames post-war pressure to disarm as an existential threat to the movement, rejects "American dictates," and casts the resistance as a partner of the Lebanese state and army.]