Hezbollah supporters protest Lebanon-Israel framework agreement in Beirut

Hezbollah leadership declared the agreement “null and void.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Hundreds of Hezbollah supporters staged demonstrations across Beirut from late Friday into Saturday to protest a framework agreement involving Lebanon, Israel and the United States, while the group’s leadership rejected the accord and called it invalid.

Motorcyclists and moped riders traveled through several parts of the Lebanese capital, including central Beirut, the area surrounding parliament and the airport road, within hours of the announcement of the agreement.

Videos circulated by local media and on social media showed large convoys moving through Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahieh, an area that sustained extensive damage in Israeli airstrikes.

Some demonstrators assembled near government buildings and blocked a nearby main road.

Additional footage showed protesters setting tires ablaze on the airport road before Lebanese soldiers dispersed the crowd and reopened the route, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

The Lebanese army established temporary checkpoints in several areas of Beirut as the demonstrations continued.

Posters displayed along the road to Beirut’s airport were also set on fire. The signs had been changed last week from reading “Thank you Iran” to “Lebanon first.”

Hezbollah leadership declared the agreement “null and void.”

Speaking Saturday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem called the U.S.-brokered agreement a “humiliation” that undermined Lebanese sovereignty.

He declared it should instead be replaced by the memorandum of understanding currently under negotiation, which includes a ceasefire in Lebanon as part of the broader agreement with Iran. Israel has objected to that approach.

Qassem also said linking an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Hezbollah’s disarmament crossed “red lines.”

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, criticized the agreement, calling it an “incitement to civil war.”

Hezbollah’s Lawyers’ Association also challenged the accord, arguing it conflicts with Lebanon’s constitution because it states that Israel and Lebanon “affirm the right of each state to exist in peace.”

The group further argued that Lebanon’s constitution “considers Zionism to be a challenge to human dignity” and declares “that it is necessary to work to eliminate it.”