Al-Liwaa newspaper quoted on Saturday a source close to Hezbollah that the party will not accept anything less than an apology in order to reconsider rectifying its ties with Lebanese president Michel Suleiman over his recent stance towards the resistance .
“the resistance will not accept anything less than an apology in order to reconsider rectifying ties with Suleiman.” The source said and added .
“Endeavors by some sides to ease Suleiman’s remarks will not resolve the matter.”
“ Suleiman has erred and today he must take back his mistake and present a clear and frank apology to amend his recent stances.” the source added
“This is the only way his relationship with the resistance can be rectified, ” the source stressed.
This development comes after Hezbollah slammed last Saturday President Suleiman over his comments during a speech at the University of Kaslik in which he insisted on making the Baabda Declaration the basis of the new cabinet’s policy statement and equated the (Baabda) Declaration to the National Pact.
Suleiman said at the conference titled My Land: A Promising Future , that Lebanon’s land, people, and common values constitute the country’s “permanent equation.”
This was understood to be a response to Hezbollah’s demand that the so called resistance formula should be the basis for the new government policy
( people + army + resistance ).
“With all our due respect to the presidency and what it represents, the latest speech delivered Friday makes us believe that the Baabda Palace has recently been in need of special care, since its occupier cannot differentiate anymore between gold and wood,” the Hezbollah statement said.
This was in direct response to Suleiman’s advise against” clinging to wooden formulas that hinder the drafting of the ministerial statement.”
In a quick reaction via Twitter to Hezbollah’s attack, President Suleiman stated last Saturday that what Baabda Palace needs is acknowledging the unanimous consensus over the Baabda Declaration that was reached inside its premises.
The panel charged with drafting the policy statement has so far failed in its mission due to an ongoing dispute over the role of the resistance in Lebanon and the equation of the “army-people-resistance.”
March 14 leaders praised Suleiman’s stance with regards to including Baabda declaration as the basis for the ministerial policy while Hezbollah and its allies criticized him.
Lebanon Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of the Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group reiterated his determination last week to mention the resistance formula in the ministerial statement.
“Abandoning the resistance is out of the question. Had this happened before, South Lebanon and Lebanon would not have endured,” Berri was quoted as telling his visitors, in remarks published last Monday .
While Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea defended President Michel Suleiman ‘s stance stressing that this reflected the opinion of the majority of the lebanese people .
In an interview with al-Mustaqbal newspaper which was published last Monday Geagea said: Suleiman “said what he had to say last Friday on all our behalf.”
His remarks “reflect the viewpoint of the majority of the Lebanese who are fed up with Hezbollah’s behavior and practices at the strategic, military, security, political and media levels,” Geagea said.
“I salute him,” he added.
Geagea blasted Hezbollah’s harsh rhetoric and said the Lebanese are fed up with the party’s practices, which contradict the authorities of the state institutions.
Geagea added
” Hezbollah considers the supreme leader of Iran as the head of the Lebanese state and that our situation in Lebanon should be a copycat of Iran,” he said about the Iranian backed Shiite militant group.
Similarly Phalange Party MP Sami Gemayel slammed last Thursday the Hezbollah led March 8 politicians who are calling for preserving the Lebanese’s “right to resistance” in the ministerial statement.
“Does that mean that we will live in a jungle and give weapon licenses to all Lebanese?” Gemayel said in a statement last week following his meeting with Berri.
“There is no consensus on the concept of resistance,” he added.
Gemayel went on to stress the importance of the Baabda Declaration, and said that “Hezbollah alone has its reservations against this Declaration.”
According to analysts Hezbollah has been misusing the term resistance since 2006.”
Hezbollah, which was credited with the liberation of Lebanese territories from Israel in 2000 was a very popular organization in Lebanon and throughout the Arab world. Back then pictures of the Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah were posted everywhere here in Lebanon and the Arab and Muslim countries.
But according to analysts ever since its 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah has become a huge liability for Lebanon.
Despite the destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure and the great loss of lives during that war Hezbollah claimed victory and used its arms to try and bring down the democratically elected government of former PM Fouad Siniora, who helped in ending that war which ended up costing Lebanon in excess of $15 billion.
In 2008 Hezbollah pointed its guns against the Lebanese people when it occupied more than half of Beirut and tried but failed with a great loss of lives to occupy Mt Lebanon .
In 2011 Hezbollah brought down the democratically elected government of former PM Saad Hariri and reportedly used its arms to force progressive socialist party leader MP Walid Jumblatt and his parliamentary bloc to vote for its candidate Nagib Mikati as the new premier .
Hezbollah which was established by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1982 was also accused of being behind the attack against the Baabda presidential palace last August following president Suleiman’s speech on Army day in which he criticized Hezbollah’s role in Syrian civil war .
“The army’s mission would be impossible if a party or more from Lebanese people get involved in wars outside Lebanon ”, Suleiman stressed in another reference to the tens of thousands of Hezbollah fighters who have been trying to prevent the collapse of Syrian regime .
Tens of thousands of Hezbollah fighters are reportedly fighting alongside the forces loyal to president Assad against the Syrian rebels who are seeking to overthrow the 40 year old dictatorship despite the Baabda agreement that calls for distancing Lebanon from regional and international conflicts.
According to a lebanese analyst: “The party is willing to risk the foundations on which the entire Lebanese political system was built in order to prevent the collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime and impede the work of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is probing the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.”
Five members of Hezbollah have been indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Hariri , but Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah refused to hand them over to the international court.
The trial of the Hezbollah suspects started last January near The Hague.
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