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BEIRUT: Lebanese Justice Minister Adel Nassar accused Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem of contradicting himself following a speech in which the latter threatened escalation if the government attempted to confront or disarm the Iran-backed group.

Nassar said Qassem had previously accepted the ceasefire agreement with Israel and endorsed the ministerial statement affirming the Lebanese state’s exclusive control over arms.

However, in a speech on Friday at a religious ceremony in Baalbek, Qassem openly rejected the disarmament of Hezbollah, calling it “unacceptable” and accusing the government of implementing an “American-Israeli order to eliminate the resistance, even if that leads to civil war and internal strife.”

Speaking to Arab News, Nassar said: “Qassem says he doesn’t want a civil war, but he’s threatening to take to the streets to defend his weapons and holding the state responsible for any clash with the army.”

The justice minister stressed that “the party outside the legitimacy that refuses to surrender its weapons to the state bears responsibility for this.”

Nassar said that either all parties in Lebanon build the state together and stand in solidarity, or engage in a destructive military confrontations. “Hezbollah wants to take us down to a destructive path,” he warned.

The minister reiterated that Qassem’s speech clashed with the interests of the Lebanese state, which wants to control arms in the country in line with a US-backed plan following Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah.

The Lebanese Cabinet last week tasked the military with confining weapons only to state security forces, a move that has outraged Hezbollah.

Nassar condemned Qassem’s statements as “totally rejected,” noting that such inflammatory speech from an armed group raised concerns within the Lebanese Armed Forces.

“This is one of the most important reasons that prompted the government to take the decision to restrict the possession of weapons. Attempting to monopolize decision-making and plunge Lebanon into wars is a logic that does not align with the logic of the state,” Nassar said.

Iranian official Ali Larijani visited Lebanon earlier this week and said Tehran does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, but supports resistance movements.

Nassar criticized the statements as a threat to Lebanon’s security.

In his speech, Qassem thanked Iran for “supporting us with money, weapons, capabilities, and media and political positions.”

He said Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, its Shia Muslim ally, had decided to delay any street protests while there was still scope for talks.

“There is still room for discussion, for adjustments, and for a political resolution before the situation escalates to a confrontation no one wants,” Qassem said.

“But if it is imposed on us, we are ready, and we have no other choice ... At that point, there will be a protest in the street, all across Lebanon, that will reach the American Embassy.”

He held “the Lebanese government fully responsible for any internal strife that might occur,” adding that “we do not want it, but there are those who work for it.”

Qassem said there would be “no life” in Lebanon if the government sought to confront or eliminate the group.

“This is our nation together. We live in dignity together, and we build its sovereignty together — or Lebanon will have no life if you stand on the other side and try to confront us and eliminate us,” he said in his speech.

“Lebanon cannot be built except with all its components.”

A government source told Arab News that Qassem’s “escalating rhetoric” does not concern Lebanon, but rather represents a dialogue between Iran and the US through Hezbollah.

“The Iranians feel that they are no longer part of any settlement in the region they used to control and are now being completely ignored,” the source said.

Qassem’s remarks drew widespread backlash from ministers, lawmakers, and political leaders.

Industry Minister Joe Issa Khoury said: “The decision to go to war is not written in the ink of a sect, but rather signed by the entire nation. The national charter protects it from becoming a tool of one sect over the others. Whoever turns it into a tool of blackmail empties it of its meaning.”

MP George Okais stressed that the ceasefire agreement with Israel was approved by the entire Cabinet, including ministers from Hezbollah and Amal.

“Decisions that affect all Lebanese cannot be made without their consultation, nor imposed under any form of duress,” he added.

MP Raji Al-Saad warned against Qassem’s threat of internal strife, saying his statements represent “a dangerous turning point and constitute a rejection of the establishment of the state and an insistence on keeping Lebanon an arena for Iranian projects.”

MP Ghiath Yazbek said Qassem is “verbally fighting Israel and practically destroying Lebanon after the war paralyzed his party, rendered it ineffective, and turned it into a mere vocal phenomenon.”

He pleaded with the group’s leader to have “mercy on Lebanon.”

Former minister and MP Ashraf Rifi warned Hezbollah against repeating threats of civil war. In a statement, he said the only solution was the state, telling Qassem: “Return to your homeland and end your subservience to Iran, which has begun to collapse in every arena it has entered, based on a historical illusion that has long since passed.”

Beirut MP Ibrahim Mneimneh questioned whether Qassem was being honest with his base. “Does Naim Qassem dare to tell his supporters that disarmament is already underway, and that Hezbollah itself no longer denies it? Enough with gambling with the country and its people,” he said.

Beirut MP Waddah Al-Sadig said: “Civil peace is not a matter of blackmail or sectarian tension, and the lives of the Lebanese are not in the hands of any party, faction, or sect.”

He stressed that moving forward, Lebanon’s lives, security, and prosperity are in the hands of the state. “Civil peace is a national will to protect the people, the army, and the state,” he said.