Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said that his Iran-backed group’s weapons were not part of upcoming negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, and vowed his fighters would turn the battlefield into “hell” for Israeli forces, AFP reports.

“Nobody outside Lebanon has anything to do with the weapons, the resistance… this is an internal Lebanese matter and not part of negotiations with the enemy,” Qassem said in a written statement ahead of a third round of talks in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli representatives.

“We will not surrender and we will continue to defend Lebanon and its people, however long it takes and however great the sacrifices… we will not abandon the battlefield and we will turn it into hell for Israel,” he added.