Hezbollah's New Boss Speaks

Hezbollah's newly named leader Naim Kassem said in his first public comments aired Wednesday that the militant group will keep fighting in its ongoing war with Israel until it's offered ceasefire terms it deems acceptable. "If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say that we accept, but according to the conditions that we see as suitable," Kassem said, speaking from an undisclosed location in a prerecorded televised address. "We will not beg for a ceasefire, as we will continue [fighting] ... no matter how long it takes." The speech came as international mediators have launched a new push for negotiated ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza, reports the AP.

Kassem, a cleric and founding member of the Lebanese militant group, was named Tuesday to replace former longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in late September. Several other high-ranking officials with the group, including Nasrallah's presumptive successor, Hashem Safieddine, have also been killed in recent weeks, as the Israel-Hezbollah war escalated in Lebanon. Kassem said the series of blows dealt to the group in recent weeks—including pager explosions that targeted Hezbollah members in mid-September—had "hurt" the group, but he asserted that the group had been able to reorganize its ranks within eight days of Nasrallah's death.

"Hezbollah's capabilities are still available and compatible with a long war," Kassem said. He pointed to the steady stream of Israeli soldiers wounded and killed in southern Lebanon since Israeli forces launched a ground invasion on Oct. 1, and to a drone launched by Hezbollah that hit the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month. He said Hezbollah has been in coordination with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the primary Lebanese interlocutor communicating with the United States, which has put forward a series of proposals to end the conflict. "So far no project has been put forward that Israel agrees on and is acceptable for us to negotiate," Kassem said. There was no immediate Israeli response to the speech, but as he was speaking, a series of Israeli airstrikes pounded the eastern city of Baalbek.

(More Naim Kassem stories.)