A Lebanese daily newspaper has revealed that a recent meeting between the deputy director of German intelligence and a top Hezbollah official failed to convince Lebanon’s resistance movement to stop its retaliatory strikes against the Israeli regime in support of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Beirut-based Al-Akhbar daily said in a report on Saturday that the meeting took place around two weeks ago between Uli Diyal, deputy director of Berlin’s foreign intelligence, and Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general.
The meeting was in line with “Western efforts to separate the Lebanese front from the Palestinian front,” the Lebanese daily said, adding that, “The Germans were unable to persuade the resistance to stop its operations or to promote the idea of separating the fronts.”
Citing sources, the report said, “Sheikh Qassem emphasized the resistance’s decision and its ability to defeat the enemy if it expanded its aggression. He refused to enter any discussion [on ending operations] before stopping the war on Gaza, urging Germany to put pressure on Israel to stop the war.”
The Hezbollah official added, “Unless the war stops in Gaza, it cannot stop in Lebanon.”
Earlier in the month, the Lebanese daily newspaper said White House advisor Amos Hochstein had visited Beirut and told officials that Hezbollah must withdraw from the southern border.
“Otherwise, Israel will launch a war against Hezbollah, which, along with Lebanon, must learn from what happened in Gaza,” Hochstein threatened.
Since the beginning of Hezbollah’s near-daily attacks on the Israeli-occupied territories in support of Gaza in early October, Western governments have been pressuring Lebanon on behalf of the illegal entity to stop its retaliatory strikes.
The Israeli regime launched its hostilities in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, after the territory’s Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups launched surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupyiers.
The Israeli military has also been conducting attacks against the Lebanese territory since then, prompting retaliatory strikes from Hezbollah in condemnation of the regime’s bombardment of Gaza.
The movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory operations as long as the Tel Aviv regime continues its onslaught on Gaza.
Israel has killed more than 26,000 people, most of them children and women, in Gaza since early October.
