In rare interview, top Hezbollah leader rejects disarmament, calls for Israeli withdrawal

[0:00] AMNA NAWAZ, The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah attacked an Israeli army position [0:03] in northern Israel today, saying it was in response to several Israeli cease-fire violations. [0:10] It's the first time the Iran-backed group has claimed responsibility for an attack during [0:15] the tenuous truce that started last week. [0:18] Representatives from the government of Lebanon and Israel will meet again this Thursday in [0:22] Washington for peace talks. [0:24] Hezbollah is not involved. [0:26] The full disarmament of the group is a central part of the discussions, but in a rare interview, [0:31] a top Hezbollah official tells special correspondent Simona Fultin they will never give up all of [0:37] their weapons. [0:38] We're about to meet a high-ranking Hezbollah official to understand the group's position [0:44] on the cease-fire. [0:45] He is one of the few senior leaders to have survived Israel's relentless assassination campaign, [0:52] and he is still considered a high-value target. [0:55] Wafiq Safa is a senior official in Hezbollah's political wing. [0:59] He narrowly escaped a targeted Israeli strike in 2024. [1:03] This is his first interview on American television. [1:05] There have already been several violations in the first days of this cease-fire. [1:10] Is Hezbollah committed to abiding by it? [1:12] Hezbollah is committed to this cease-fire, but we have seen during the last two days that [1:21] the Israelis have continuously violated it, be it the destruction and bulldozing of houses, [1:29] or the bombardment of villages, or even the killing of civilians. [1:33] There can't be a one-sided cease-fire from Hezbollah only. [1:42] So Hezbollah will respond to these attacks, but in a way that we deem appropriate. [1:47] We are at an undisclosed location in Beirut's southern suburbs, a residential area where Hezbollah [1:55] enjoys widespread support. [1:58] Israeli bombardment has left a trail of destruction here. [2:02] Despite the cease-fire, the buzz of Israeli drones is constant. [2:07] Safa has little confidence in the Trump administration's ability to restrain Israel. [2:11] We don't believe that there are any guarantees with the Israelis, but for the weapons that [2:16] we possess. [2:18] It's a lesson learned from the previous U.S.-backed cease-fire that was supposed to end the 2024 [2:24] war. [2:25] Israel had reserved a right to strike what it said were Hezbollah targets, violating the [2:29] agreement more than 10,000 times in 15 months. [2:34] Hezbollah held back until the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. [2:39] It re-entered the war to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. [2:44] Many Lebanese blamed Hezbollah for this decision to drag Lebanon back into a war. [2:49] And it looked as though you were defending Iran's interests and not Lebanon's interests. [2:55] In reality, there's a delusion. [3:00] And this delusion stems from the fact that Israel never stopped the war. [3:07] Turkey was tried and it failed. [3:11] Therefore it was necessary to take the right decision under the right circumstances and [3:15] at the right time to defend Lebanon and to defend the Lebanese people, to deter Israel [3:22] and to force it to stop the attacks. [3:26] The decision to re-enter this war, was that an Iranian decision or a Lebanese decision? [3:34] We chose the right time when the Israeli enemy was busy with its war on Iran. [3:39] We benefited from the ongoing war. [3:42] And we don't deny that Iran also benefited from this war that we took to the Israeli enemy. [3:50] We are in a permanent alliance with the Islamic Republic, and it's natural that we support each other. [3:59] Israel was preparing for another war on us, and Hezbollah made the first move. [4:06] On March 2, Hezbollah fired six rockets into northern Israel. [4:11] In response, Israel sharply escalated its attacks, killing more than 2,000 Lebanese. [4:16] But if Israel was preparing for another war, why attack first and give them the justification [4:22] on a silver platter for what you knew would be a disproportionate response that would claim [4:28] many civilian lives? [4:29] The Israelis don't need a pretext. [4:33] The six rockets that we fired, why didn't they speak to the cease-fire monitoring mechanism? [4:38] They bypassed the mechanism, and they went straight to the war they had been threatening with. [4:42] But Safa admits that Hezbollah, too, was preparing for another war, even as it appeared to collaborate [4:49] with the Lebanese state to hand over some of its weapons. [4:52] During these 15 months, Hezbollah was trying to rehabilitate its military, organizational, [5:01] political and social capabilities, and Hezbollah succeeded in that. [5:07] As part of a U.S. and Israel-backed Lebanese government decree, Hezbollah was supposed to [5:12] have disarmed south of the Litani River, which runs up to 18 miles north of Israel's borders. [5:18] The process was declared completed at the end of December 2025. [5:22] We saw with our own eyes how the Lebanese army confiscated some of your weapons. [5:27] But in the past weeks we have seen Hezbollah fighters once again battling Israeli troops in [5:33] southern Lebanon. [5:34] So it seems that you were not disarmed. [5:41] The Lebanese army did seize a number of weapons. [5:44] But the Lebanese army didn't know how many weapons Hezbollah had to begin with. [5:50] We helped the Lebanese army so that the south of the Litani is free of weapons. [5:55] When this war started, we fired from the north of the Litani to the north of the river, and [6:00] it's our right to do so. [6:04] Israel says it now wants to take care of Hezbollah itself. [6:08] Its troops have pushed several miles into southern Lebanon, establishing a yellow line similar [6:13] to Gaza in what looks like an annexation of land. [6:16] Hezbollah has vowed to resist the occupation. [6:20] We don't accept any Israeli presence, not on our land, not in our skies, not even in [6:26] our waters. [6:29] Israel says its so-called buffer zone is necessary to protect residents in the north. [6:35] At least 35 Israelis have been killed by Iranian and Hezbollah missiles, though Safa denies that [6:40] the group is deliberately targeting civilians. [6:43] Let us be clear and honest, Hezbollah's ethics and religion prohibits it from killing civilians. [6:54] But what happens when we fire at soldiers, there may be what is called collateral damage. [7:01] If Hezbollah wanted to target civilians, you would have seen large numbers of civilians killed [7:05] and injured. [7:07] Following this latest war, Hezbollah appears to have hardened its position, boosted by Iran's [7:17] insistence that Israel must seize attacks on Lebanon if the Strait of Hermos is to remain [7:22] open. [7:23] As far as Hezbollah's weapons are concerned, it's out of discussion. [7:29] Hezbollah's demands are clear. [7:30] We want complete and permanent adherence to the cease-fire, withdrawal from all occupied [7:37] Lebanese territory, the release of the prisoners, and the return of the displaced. [7:43] SIMONA FOLTIN, Israeli and Lebanese officials will meet again on Thursday in Washington. [7:49] For now, this tenuous truce is barely holding. [7:52] And this time, Hezbollah says it will fight back if it fails. [7:57] For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Simona Foltin in Beirut. [8:00] And the NewsHour has requested an interview with an Israeli official to discuss the war [8:06] with Hezbollah and the current cease-fire, and we hope to bring that to you soon. [8:22] Support journalism you trust. [8:24] Support PBS News. [8:26] Donate now, or even better, start a monthly contribution today.