On Friday, September 19, 2025, Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem made an unexpected public appeal to Saudi Arabia, urging the kingdom to mend ties with the Iran-backed group and join forces against Israel. Qassem’s call, delivered in a televised address, comes at a time of heightened regional tension, following Israel’s recent strikes in southern Lebanon and a dramatic escalation in hostilities across the Middle East.
According to Reuters, Qassem’s message was clear: "We assure you that the arms of the resistance (Hezbollah) are pointed at the Israeli enemy, not Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, or any other place or entity in the world." The Hezbollah secretary-general emphasized that the group’s weapons are aimed solely at Israel, not at Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, or any other party — a point he repeated throughout his remarks.
Qassem’s overture is rooted in a complex web of alliances and rivalries. For years, Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah have been at odds, their animosity a reflection of the broader struggle between Riyadh and Tehran, Hezbollah’s chief patron. The Gulf Cooperation Council, led by Saudi Arabia, designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 2016, citing its involvement in the Syrian civil war on behalf of Bashar al-Assad and its support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The designation was echoed by other Gulf states, and relations between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon have been deeply strained ever since.
Recent history has only deepened the divide. In 2021, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Beirut and banned Lebanese imports, accusing the country of being a conduit for drug smuggling. Though the ambassador returned, the import ban remains in place, and distrust lingers. As AP notes, this diplomatic chill followed years of sharp rhetoric: Saudi officials labeled Hezbollah a terrorist group and accused it of flooding Gulf markets with drugs, while Hezbollah’s leadership blasted Riyadh for spreading extremist ideologies.
Yet, in his Friday speech, Qassem sought to set aside these grievances. He called for dialogue based on three principles: resolving disputes through conversation, recognizing Israel as the true enemy, and freezing past disagreements. "I call on Saudi Arabia to open a new page with the resistance," Qassem declared. He stressed that pressuring Hezbollah only serves Israel’s interests, warning that if the group is eliminated, "the turn will come for the other states." His logic was straightforward: if militant resistance is crushed, Israel will simply target the next country in line.
Qassem’s appeal was not made in a vacuum. It came amid a spike in violence across the region. On September 2, 2025, Israel launched a strike on Qatar that killed six people at the headquarters of Hamas’ political leadership, according to AP. The move sent shockwaves through the Gulf, prompting Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan to sign a mutual defense pact defining any attack on either as an attack on both. This new alliance, forged just days before Qassem’s speech, underscores the shifting security landscape in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the situation in southern Lebanon remains dire. On the same day as Qassem’s address, Israeli strikes killed two people and wounded eleven others in the towns of Tebnin and Ansar. The Israeli army claimed responsibility, stating it had killed Ammar Hayel Qutaybani, whom it described as a Hezbollah commander, and a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. Israel also reported striking a vessel allegedly used by Hezbollah to gather intelligence in Naqura. These attacks, as reported by Al Jazeera, came just after Israel bombed several towns in the south and warned residents to evacuate, demonstrating the ongoing volatility despite a ceasefire agreement brokered in November 2024.
That ceasefire, intended to halt hostilities, required Hezbollah to disarm and move north of the Litani River, while Israel was to withdraw from Lebanese territory. Yet, as Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam pointed out, Israel continues to occupy at least five points in southern Lebanon and has carried out almost daily strikes in defiance of the agreement. Salam accused Israel of "intimidation and aggressions" that violate both the ceasefire and the international mechanisms set up to monitor it.
In this context, Qassem’s proposal for a Saudi-Hezbollah rapprochement is both bold and fraught. Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, while formally restored in March 2023 through a Chinese-brokered agreement, remain frosty. The rivalry between the two powers has played out across Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, with each side backing opposing factions and fueling proxy conflicts. Qassem’s call for unity against Israel, then, is not just a plea for peace — it is a calculated attempt to realign the region’s fractured alliances.
Qassem was also unflinching in his criticism of Israel and its Western backers. He described Israel as a colonial outpost "backed first by Britain and now by the United States," and accused it of reaching "the height of barbarity," committing crimes with full U.S. support and in disregard of international law. According to Al Jazeera, he argued that softer strategies — economic pressure, sanctions, and the Abraham Accords — had failed to deliver the decisive victory sought by the U.S. and Israel, leading them to embrace what he called "genocide" as a solution. He cited Israel’s September 9 strike on Qatar as a turning point, declaring, "What comes after the strike on Qatar is different from what came before."
The United States, for its part, has continued to pressure Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah as part of the November 2024 ceasefire. But Qassem insisted that the group remains committed to resisting Israeli occupation and liberating land, and that it is open to dialogue — but only "from a position of strength." He made it clear that Hezbollah would not accept any proposal requiring it to make unilateral concessions, especially while Israel continues its military operations in Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s position is complicated by recent setbacks. The group was badly weakened by last year’s war with Israel, which saw heavy bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds and the killing of its former secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah. The fall of Bashar al-Assad, the group’s longtime ally in Syria, in December further eroded its regional influence. As Reuters points out, Saudi Arabia once invested billions in Lebanon, helping rebuild the south after the 2006 war with Israel, only to see Hezbollah’s power grow with Iranian support.
Despite these challenges, Qassem’s appeal signals a potential shift. In recent months, verbal attacks between Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah have subsided, and the region has witnessed significant political upheaval. Whether Riyadh will respond positively to Qassem’s overture remains uncertain. As of September 19, 2025, Saudi Arabia had not issued an official response, and its designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization remains unchanged.
For now, the future of Saudi-Hezbollah relations hangs in the balance. Qassem’s message — that dialogue and unity against Israel should take precedence over old grudges — may resonate with some, but the obstacles to reconciliation are formidable. As violence continues to flare along the Israeli-Lebanese border and alliances shift across the Gulf, the prospect of a new chapter in this longstanding rivalry is anything but assured.
Still, Qassem’s call for a "new page" is a reminder that, even in a region defined by deep divisions and historic enmities, the possibility of change is never truly off the table.