Hezbollah chief says indirect truce talks only possible if Israel stops attacks

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Wednesday that only developments on the battlefield, not political moves, would bring an end to the hostilities between the Lebanese armed group and the Israeli military. "I will tell you very clearly, our conviction is that only one thing can stop this war of aggression, and that is the battlefield," said Qassem, who was elected as Hezbollah's secretary general following the killing of his predecessor Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Israeli strikes in September. He said that he did not believe that "political action" would bring about an end to the more than year-long conflict, playing out in parallel with Israel's war in Gaza.