Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday defended President Michel in connection with the row over the formation of the new government while criticizing PM-designate Saad Hariri’s “insistence” on the putting together of an 18-seat government.
In a televised speech commemorating Hizbullah’s slain leaders, Nasrallah stressed that suggestions linking the government’s formation to Iran’s nuclear file are “repetitive and of no value.”
“I don’t think that anyone wants the government not to be formed, it is in everyone’s interest to see this thing happen, and it is unacceptable to await the foreign powers,” Nasrallah added.
“Holding only the President responsible is unfair,” he said.
“We understand the PM-designate’s stance on the ‘blocking one-third’ but we don’t understand his insistence on the interior portfolio and on the 18 ministers,” Nasrallah went on to say.
Separately, Nasrallah said calls in Lebanon for a U.N. resolution under Chapter 7 should no government be formed are “condemned.”
“Such talk is a call for war and chaos and let no one take this issue lightly,” Nasrallah cautioned.
He explained that internationalization “harms Lebanon, complicates its issues and contradicts with sovereignty.”
“It might be a cover for a new occupation and it can open the door wide to the naturalization scheme that is rejected by Palestinian refugees and the Lebanese people,” he warned.
Noting that there is no problem in seeking the help of friendly countries, Nasrallah pointed out that internationalization “will not resolve our problems but will rather aggravate them.”
“Proposing this idea is aimed at relying on foreign powers” to confront domestic parties, Nasrallah charged.
Turning to the recent assassination of prominent anti-Hizbullah activist and researcher Lokman Slim, which some parties have blamed on Hizbullah, Nasrallah described the accusations as “frail and silly.”
“Profanity and insults reflect the ethical and psychological content of those who launch them and they reflect weakness and impotence,” he said.
“I tell this choir that this will not affect us and I call on the supporters of the resistance not to respond in kind,” he added.
“Every accused is innocent until proven guilty, according to laws and norms, except in Lebanon, where we have a group that says that Hizbullah is guilty and convicted until proven innocent,” Nasrallah lamented.
He added that the allegations are a “systematic and premeditated campaign that is being orchestrated by black rooms.”
“We have documents to prove this issue,” he said.
“I thank the supporters of the resistance and the journalists and politicians who expressed their opinions, defended the resistance and refuted the frail and silly accusations,” Nasrallah added.
As for the tensions with Israel, Hizbullah’s leader addressed a warning to the chief of staff of the Israeli army.
“You can do whatever you want and we also can do whatever we want,” Nasrallah said.
“We are not seeking a confrontation — although certainly we won’t forget the blood of our martyrs — but we are not seeking a confrontation or a war,” Nasrallah said.
“But should a confrontation take place, we will engage in it, and if you impose a war we will fight that war, but I clearly say that if you hit our cities we will hit your cities, and if you hit our villages we will hit your settlements,” he added.
“I warn that even the game of ‘a few days of fighting’ will be a dangerous game for the Israelis. No one can guarantee that such a game will not descend into an all-out and major war,” Nasrallah went on to say.
“Should war erupt, there is no need for the Israelis to make bravados — the domestic front in the enemy’s entity will witness events unseen since the rise of this entity in 1948. Therefore, enough with the playing with fire and let the enemy know its limits. The era in which it used to launch threats and people would bow and keep silent is over,” Hizbullah’s leader warned.
- 8 hours ago
Nasrallah said suggestions linking the government’s formation to Iran’s nuclear file are “repetitive and of no value.”
- 8 hours ago
Nasrallah: I don’t think that anyone wants the government not to be formed, it is in everyone’s interest to see this thing happen, and it is unacceptable to await the foreign powers.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah: Holding only the President responsible is unfair.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah: We understand Hariri’s stance on the “blocking one-third” but we don’t understand his insistence on the interior portfolio and on the 18 ministers.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah: I thank the supporters of the resistance and the journalists and politicians who expressed their opinions, defended the resistance and refuted the frail and silly accusations.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah: These allegations are a systematic and premeditated campaign that is being orchestrated by black rooms and we have documents to prove this issue.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah: Every accused is innocent until proven guilty, according to laws and norms, except in Lebanon, where we have a group that says that Hizbullah is guilty and convicted until proven innocent.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah: I tell this choir that this will not affect us and I call on the supporters of the resistance not to respond in kind.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah on accusations over Slim’s assassination: Profanity and insults reflect the ethical and psychological content of those who launch them and they reflect weakness and impotence.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah: There is no problem in seeking the help of friends but internationalization will not resolve our problems but will rather aggravate them and proposing this idea is aimed at relying on foreign power.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah: Internationalization harms Lebanon, complicates its issues and contradicts with sovereignty. It might be a cover for a new occupation and it can open the door wide to the naturalization scheme that is rejected by Palestinian refugees and the Lebanese people.
- 9 hours ago
Nasrallah: The call for a U.N. resolution under Chapter 7 is condemned and such talk is a call for war and chaos and let no one take this issue lightly.