TEHRAN – On the anniversary of the 1983 “Agreement of Shame,” Hezbollah warns that direct talks with the Israeli regime risk surrendering Lebanese sovereignty and dignity to the enemy.

Hezbollah issued a statement on the anniversary of the “Agreement of Shame and Disgrace” stating that this occasion comes “amid extremely dangerous Lebanese and regional circumstances caused by the escalating U.S.-Israeli regime aggression against our region and our country.”

On May 17, 1983, Lebanon and the Israeli regime signed a U.S.-brokered agreement. It collapsed within a year after opponents, including the Amal movement, whose leader is the Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, strongly condemned it as an act of surrender to American and Israeli interests at a time when the Zionist regime was occupying large parts of Lebanese territory.

The resistance movement pointed to the ongoing Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories, continued crimes of killing, destruction, and leveling of villages, especially in the south, along with the complete violation of Lebanese airspace and waters, and the targeted assassinations of civilians and resistance fighters.

Hezbollah warned against “attempts to reproduce something even more dangerous and deviant than the May 17 agreement” through talk of a “full and comprehensive peace agreement” between the Lebanese authorities and the Zionist entity as “the enemy of the land, the people, culture, and history.” The statement considered this a clear, blatant violation of the Lebanese constitution and laws, a renunciation of Lebanon’s history, the sacrifices of its people, their steadfastness, and the greatness of their resistance.

Hezbollah added that by such actions, the Lebanese authorities “have drifted far away, disregarded the lessons and examples of history, and absolved the enemy of its aggression and occupation,” treating it “as if it were a peaceful, recognized entity.”

In its statement, Hezbollah affirmed its rejection of “any external diktats, pressures, or guardianships, American or otherwise” that seek to impose a political path on Lebanon that “violates its sovereignty, independence, and dignity” and contradicts the most basic national principles that all Lebanese should agree upon.

The statement stressed that what the occupation regime’s leaders announce regarding their settlement projects in Lebanese lands confirms their persistent ambitions for land, water, and natural resources, seeking to strip Lebanon of its strengths and resources.

The resistance front affirmed that Lebanon’s acceptance of direct negotiations with the Zionist regime “serves to enhance and increase the enemy’s gains at the expense of Lebanon and its people.”

Hezbollah called on the Lebanese authorities “not to go too far with misguided options regarding the enemy,” warning of the consequences for Lebanon’s stability as a state and society. It also demanded that they “stop the series of concessions and the squandering of rights and national dignity,” commit to the national interest, and abandon “the illusion that a peace agreement can be reached with this usurping, covetous, occupying enemy.”

The resistance movement relayed the questions of the Lebanese people in general, and southerners in particular, to the Lebanese authorities: What has the concession-based path, adopted since the ceasefire agreement on November 27, 2024, and then moving to direct negotiations, achieved for Lebanon’s benefit? It affirmed that the result has been “more pressure, more concessions, more aggression, and more destruction.”

Hezbollah emphasized that the authorities pursued this path under the pretext that it was “the only way to secure a ceasefire and stop Israeli attacks,” despite the “constitutional violations and lack of national consensus” surrounding this option. It asked: “Now, after a month of following this approach, what have you achieved for Lebanon?”

It criticized the Lebanese authorities for not retreating from this step, as they now prepare to move toward a political and security path that would “lengthen the chain of gratuitous concessions offered to the enemy,” who responds after every negotiation round by escalating its attacks, expanding its targeting of Lebanese villages and towns, continuing to kill Lebanese people, destroying their homes, and violating Lebanese sovereignty.

According to the statement, many Lebanese today see extending the ceasefire through this path as extending their own killing and providing cover for aggression against them and their homeland.

Hezbollah called on the concerned authorities to cooperate through national consensus to achieve national principles: ensuring the enemy’s full withdrawal from all Lebanese territories, achieving a complete and final halt to the aggression, freeing prisoners, allowing immediate return of Lebanese people to their villages and towns with dignity and pride, and launching reconstruction without restrictions, conditions, or obstacles of any kind.

Hezbollah affirmed that the Zionist occupation regime will never find stability on Lebanese soil as long as the valiant resistance exists, with its heroic fighters, its self-sacrificing and courageous people, and all the national forces and honorable free people from every sect and region of this country.

The resistance movement concluded its statement by saying: “The dawn of liberation, freedom, and full independence will surely break, whether in the long-term or the short-term, and Lebanon will return as a free, sovereign, and independent master of itself.”

Hezbollah continues to confront the Israeli Occupation Forces, along the Lebanese border, targeting gatherings of soldiers and military vehicles. The regime’s military has confirmed the death of another officer who served as a platoon commander in the elite Golani Brigade, following the explosion of a bomb-laden drone launched by Lebanese resistance.