Hezbollah claims that Saudi Arabia is obstructing Lebanon’s presidential vote

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raad  mohammadHezbollah’s parliamentary bloc chief MP Mohammed Raad on Friday claimed that Saudi Arabia is “obstructing the presidential vote” in Lebanon and of being involved in the deadly bomb attacks that rocked several Lebanese regions in recent years.

“Some are criticizing us for raising the voice in the face of the Saudi regime, which has not left any door open for reconciliation, after it obstructed the presidential vote in our country through vetoing the choice of the Lebanese,” Raad added, reiterating the Hezbollah allegation that Riyadh had vetoed the election of Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun as president.

But the Change and Reform bloc and Hezbollah are the 2 main blocs that have been boycotting the electoral sessions and preventing the achievement of a quorum , according to Lebanese media reports.

Raad also echoed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s remarks that Saudi Arabia had played a role in the bombings that targeted Lebanese regions in recent years.

He said those who staged the bomb attacks “received phone calls from numbers in the Saudi kingdom.”

“This regime has also sent car bombs and explosive devices to target civilians and pilgrims in Iraq through its army of takfiri terrorists,” Raad charged.

“They have also destroyed and weakened Syria and divided its people … We are not launching false accusations against anyone and we are not attacking anyone, but it is our right to tell the truth to people,” the Hezbollah MP added.

His remarks come away after Hezbollah failed to convince the Lebanese government to condemn the Gulf and Arab stance, which labeled the Iranian-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

The Saudi-led bloc of six Gulf Arab nations formally branded Hezbollah a terrorist organization on Wednesday, ramping up pressure on the Lebanese militant group fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad in Syria.

The move by the Gulf Cooperation Council came less than two weeks after Saudi Arabia announced it was cutting $4 billion in aid to Lebanese army and security forces. The kingdom and other Gulf States followed up that move by urging their citizens to leave Lebanon, dealing a blow to the tiny nation’s tourism industry.

The GCC announcement came a few hours after a televised speech by Hezbollah’s Nasrallah in which he harshly criticized Saudi Arabia for punitive measures that targeted Lebanon recently, including the halt in aid and Gulf travel warnings.

Wednesday’s move against Hezbollah reflects deeper regional divisions between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite powerhouse Iran, Hezbollah’s patron. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran earlier this year after protesters angry over the kingdom’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr set fire to the Saudi Embassy and another diplomatic mission inside Iran.

A statement from GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani said the bloc decided to implement the terrorist designation because of hostile acts by Hezbollah within its member states. It said the designation applies to the militant group as well as all its leaders, factions and affiliates.

Al-Zayani accused Hezbollah of charges including seeking to recruit members within the GCC to carry out terrorist acts, smuggling weapons and explosives, and incitement to sow disorder and violence.

Presidential election:

The Lebanese parliament failed again Wednesday and for the 36th time in a row to elect a president to replace Michel Suleiman whose term ended on May 25 , 2014.

As in the past 35 sessions the parliament was unable to reach a quorum because the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group and its ally MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc MPs boycotted the session, because they could not guarantee Aoun’s election as a president.

72 lawmakers, including former PM and Future Movement chief MP Saad Hariri participated in the session, but 86 MPs are needed for quorum to be met at parliament for the election of a president.

The 2 main candidates , Aoun and Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh failed to attend the session.
Both Aoun and Franjieh are from the Hezbollah-led M8 camp .

Iran has been blamed by the rival March 14 camp of obstructing the presidential vote .

During an interview with CNN on Thursday Hariri was quoted as saying :
“Today we do not have a president because part of the parliament, which is Hezbollah, is not going down to the parliament. We have a problem with the quorum. Iran had elections a few days ago, so why can’t we have elections, like normal people? Why can’t we go to the parliament? Why are they stopping Hezbollah from letting members of Parliament elect a president?”

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38 responses to “Hezbollah claims that Saudi Arabia is obstructing Lebanon’s presidential vote”

  1. master09 Avatar
    master09

    But the Change and Reform bloc and Hezbollah are the 2 main blocs that have been boycotting the electoral sessions and preventing the achievement of a quorum , according to Lebanese media reports.

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    SO, Raad … it was Saudis who blew up two Mosques in Tripoli in one day ??????

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      DearDrawer

      With 500,000 inhabitants, Tripoli is the second largest city in Lebanon after Beirut. As an overwhelming part of these are Sunni Muslims, the city is considered the traditional bastion of conservative Sunnis in Lebanon. In general, Sunnis represent 27% of the whole Lebanese population.
      Being a Sunni stronghold, all major currents of Lebanese Sunni Islamism have been centred in this city.

      Black banners with Quranic inscriptions crisscross the streets and dozens of free religious schools preach rigid Sunni doctrines and more women are spotted taking up the “niqab.”

      Tripoli is also the birthplace of Lebanon’s Salafi movement, a puritanical Sunni movement.
      The Sunnis of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the rest of Lebanon have close ties with Saudi Arabia, which supports them financially.

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        Well DearHind … THAT was my point. Raad ONLY talks about ‘bombs’ which hit HIS hoods.
        And Lebanon is supposed to be ‘all inclusive’.
        I spent a very pleasant ‘Ramadan’ there once … the Christians joined the nightly street ‘parties’, as the Christmas decorations were enjoyed by the Muslims. And I walked around that WHOLE city with a blond blue-eyed cutie who knew how to tell ‘Muslim Boys’ to bugger off in 3 languages. We were not shot.
        When I needed a toilet, she indicated the Mosque she could not use … and I washed my hands, feet, and sweaty head, and no-one bumped my chest demanding to know my ‘religion’.
        The ‘Males-Only’ coffee shop allowed her enter to make us 2 coffees, because they thought she was my daughter who knew Lebanese while I did not. It was a ‘great moment’ for all in it’s novelty – and included pictures as well.
        The bombs at Mosques in Tripoli (let alone those that targetted the Army and others) and the killing of citizens in the ’18 BATTLES’ at ‘Bab-Al Strongholds’, included OTHER SECTS AND RELIGIONS, sniped at trying to walk freely on streets – men or women or children. And the ‘High Ground’ is owned by the ones Raad’s gang defends in Syria.
        Yes, there ARE assholes on both those ‘sides’ … and there are in the general public anywhere.
        And yes, we moved quickly when necessary … but there was no ‘challenging moment’.
        I cannot believe it is the general Sunni populace that tries to force any other ‘sect’ to adhere to a religious premise of ‘resist and confront’, the way Hezzbolla does, in Lebanon. I will admit I find them a little weird … but when in Rome, don’t act like a Yankee, after all. ;-))
        Raad and his boss only reference the supposed feelings of the Shiia ……… There is NO inclusivity of a ‘One Lebanon’ for Hezzbolla.
        Those ‘Cities Other Than Beirut’ are barely covered in ‘News’ – beyond the local stations.
        Everything is about Beirut … and those idiots just spread their garbage elsewhere to mollify the ‘home crowd’ of the #1 City. Lebanon is NOT inclusive, after all.
        Mikati holds a several-million$ wedding and forgets to invite the ‘Tripoli People’.
        Hariri promises to rebuild homes in Tripoli after the Army is FINALLY ‘allowed’ to do what it’s supposed to, and it succeeds, but the homes are still on the ground.
        A home is stolen in a ‘weird deal’ with a SYRIAN who’s ‘sect’ I don’t know – but it was a Christian Lawyer who screwed THAT up, and there seems no recourse for the woman who actually owns it – not even to receive a rent payment for its use while a ‘refugee’ from Syria uses it. THERE IS NO LAW FOR LEBANESE. Because there is no functional government.
        No-one – especially Raad – can blame THAT or the pollution which is killing them all, on a Saudi.
        Go to a Third ‘large’ city … Zgharta. Are the women working there either?? Do any ‘news sites’ report events there?
        Where IS a ‘State Of Lebanon’ at all? And who constantly prevents it from knowing itself?

        1. Rascal Avatar

          Good rational comment. The Party or God/Iran wants Lebanon to be part of the Syrian institution on orders from the Iranian mullah kings. They are the ones demanding there be no election by demanding their own guy must be chosen.

          1. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            You’re Obsessed by Iran 24-24. It’s all you do here nothing else..contributing nothing in “rational” discussion..

          2. Rascal Avatar

            Sorry dear but Iran is the head of the snake that controls Hezbullah , which is causing so much grief to Lebanon. Iran is an important player and thus deserves being mentioned as a deciding factor whether there will be a president or how long the Syrian war will last. So yes, Iran is very important and worth more than your disregard for reality.
            Please continue to keep your blinders on if you wish to live in la la land.

          3. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            I’m not your dear, and Lebanon is not your responsibility.
            Don’t cry Zio tears for Lebanon paid troll, you have no other subject..get lost.

            Hasbara Fellowship Talking Points

            1-Israelis want peace
            2-Israel has given land for peace
            3-Israelis accept the rights of both Jews and Arabs
            4-Israeli human rights and democracy
            5-Obstacle to peace: Palestinian terror and incitement
            6-Obstacle to peace: Iran and Hezbollah

            http://www.hasbarafellowships.org/israel-peace-week-2/talking-points-2

          4. Rudy1947 Avatar
            Rudy1947

            What’s wrong with the talking points?

          5. Rascal Avatar

            I do not give two shiites what the jews want, they are defending themselves against radical Islam from both sects and it is their own business to defend against anyone trying to destroy them or stab them in the street. With the amount of hate you have , I would not be surprised if you went on your own jew killing spree (or do you just support their murder?)
            …but you are certainly ok with all the sunni men, women and children getting killed in Syria at the hands of Hezb/Iran. Not a peep from you regarding the hundreds killed daily there by the Russian/Assad/Party of God axis fighting to save a bloody dictator that wants to control Lebanon as well.

          6. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Shut up! Get off by back you disgusting Rascal. How long are Pro-Jewish groups going to keep up this method of silencing other groups whilst simultaneously crying they are the victims of everything under the sun? It’s getting on the planet’s nerves

          7. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            ‘Initially–going back more than a decade when Washington neo-conservative think-tanks and the Bush-Cheney Administration were devising their Greater Middle East regime-change agenda–competing natural gas pipelines through Syria to Turkey or via Lebanon to the Mediterranean played a definite “supporting” role in Washington’s war on Syria’s Assad. Now oil, lots of oil, comes into the play, and Israel is claiming it’s theirs. The only problem is that it isn’t. The oil is in the Golan Heights which Israel illegally took from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War.”

            http://journal-neo.org/2015/10/26/genies-and-genocide-syria-israel-russia-and-much-oil-2/

          8. dateam Avatar

            We should not underestimate Saudi Arabia’s role in creating and funding Daesh, F. William Engdahl notes, referring to the fact that King Salman, then Governor of Riyadh, was involved in funding al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Bosnia back in the late 1970s.

            Citing Germany BND intelligence sources, American-German researcher, historian and strategic risk consultant F. William Engdahl notes that Saudi Arabia is about to become a serious destabilizing force in the Middle East, adding that it is likely that Riyadh’s current cautious foreign policy could soon be replaced by an interventionist approach.

            The researcher underscores that he has to reconsider his previous stance regarding the possible Russo-Saudi alliance: Russia’s involvement in Syria is now viewed as a serious obstacle to the Saudi royal family’s plans.

            “Prince Salman is Defense Minister and led the Kingdom, beginning last March, into a mad war, code-named by Salman as ‘Operation Decisive Storm,’ in neighboring Yemen. Saudis headed a coalition of Arab states that includes Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. The Prince is also head of the Saudi Economic Council which he created. The new King, Salman, is not the benign sweet guy his PR staff try to paint him,” Engdahl notes in his recent piece for New Eastern Outlook.

            A large convoy of Turkish military including tanks and ambulances rolls from the southeastern part of Turkey toward the Iraqi border (File)

            © AFP 2016/ MEHDI FEDOUACH

            Erdogan Struck at Iraq After Russia Blocked His Plans to Topple Syria

            Endgahl writes that in the early 1950s CIA Cairo Station Chief Miles Copeland organized the transfer of the Muslim Brotherhood, banned in Egypt, to Saudi Arabia. Citing former US Justice Department official John Loftus, the researcher explains how the Muslim Brotherhood nationalist ideas were thus combined with the Saudi Wahhabism.

            “The CIA planned to use the Saudi Muslim Brothers to wield a weapon across the entire Muslim world against feared Soviet incursions. A fanatical young terrorist named Osama Bin Laden was later to arise out of this marriage in Hell between the Brotherhood and Wahhabi Saudi Islam,” Engdahl emphasizes.

            According to the researcher, King Salman had certain ties with al-Qaeda. His involvement originates from the late 1970s when he was a Governor of Riyadh. It was he who headed major Saudi charities which were later discovered financing al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Bosnia.

            “Salman worked intimately as the financial funding conduit for what became al-Qaeda together with Bin Laden’s Saudi intelligence ‘handler,’ then-head of Saudi Intelligence, Prince Turki Al-Faisal and the Saudi-financed Muslim World League,” Engdahl continues.

            Islamic fighters from the al-Qaeda group in the Levant, Al-Nusra Front, wave their movement’s flag as they parade at the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, to denounce Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip, on July 28, 2014.

            © AFP 2016/ RAMI AL-SAYED

            Orwellian Riddle: How Did Al-Qaeda in Syria Become Washington’s Friend?

            The expert calls attention to the fact that during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003-2004, al-Qaeda penetrated into the country. A Moroccan-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi formed an al-Qaeda affiliate known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Later, this entity dubbed itself as the Islamic State (IS) also known as ISIL, or Daesh.

            Engdahl stresses that a declassified US Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) document indicated in 2012 that since the very beginning the major driving forces of US-backed Syrian insurgency were the Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI.

            “If we look at the emergence of al-Qaeda in Iraq and its transformation into the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria/ISIS [Daesh], it all traces back to the Saudi operations going back to the late 1970’s involving now-King Salman, Saudi Osama bin Laden, together with Saudi intelligence head, Prince Turki Al-Faisal,” Engdahl points out.

            Turkish soldiers stand guar near the Turkey-Syrian border post in Sanliurfa

            © AFP 2016/ OZAN KOSE

            Despite All Evidence: Washington Remains Blind to Ankara’s Complicity in Terrorism

            Quoting an unnamed Turkish source, Engdahl remarks that Turkish President Erdogan’s first presidential campaign in 2014 was supported by a “gift” of ten billion US dollars from the Saudis. He also adds that Turkey’s training centers for Syrian Islamists have been funded by Erdogan’s close friend Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi banker close to the Saudi royalties, member of the Muslim Brotherhood and financier of Osama bin Laden since the 1980s.

            “What we have, then, is not an isolated Russian war against ISIS [Daesh] in Syria. What lies behind ISIS is not just Erdogan’s criminal regime, but far more significant, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and her Wahhabi allies Kuwait, UAE, Qatar,” Engdahl suggests.

            Interestingly enough, independent researcher and writer Timothy Alexander Guzman noted in his November article that there is an influential “triangle” of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the Middle East. Guzman insisted that Turkey is the main coordinator of this clandestine alliance.

            Remarkably, while the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) comprises about 640,000 military, civilian and paramilitary personnel, Saudi Arabia boasts just a 175,000-strong army, and Qatar has a very modest military force of around 11,800 servicemen. Furthermore, the TSK is the second largest standing military force in NATO.

            Whoever the “mastermind” of the Turkish-Saudi-Qatari alliance is, it would have been unable to conduct its covert activity in the Middle East, including funding of terrorists or oil smuggling from Syria and Iraq without some tacit agreement with major Western powers. Remarkably, Washington and its European NATO allies are still turning a blind eye to illicit activities of their partners and allies in the Middle East.

            Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151209/1031493515/daesh-godfathers-turkey-saudi-arabia-qatar-funding-terrorists.html#ixzz42E604quj

          9. One radical dictatorship at a time. Saudis will have their turn.

          10. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Go hide in your Dark Holy Hole ..Rascal

          11. You have said many times to leave you alone but it appears that you are the hateful b!tch that is doing the harassment. Typical Hezbo hypocrite you are.

          12. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Your post above makes no sense, typical, giving lessons while Israeli keep people in cages and kill children..

          13. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            ‘How Islamist rebels engineered Israel’s oil grab in Syria’
            http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/how-islamist-rebels-engineered-israel-s-oil-grab-syria-740568063#sthash.en1wySTH.dpuf

            “Israel has granted oil exploration rights inside Syria, in the occupied Golan Heights, to Genie Energy. Major shareholders of Genie Energy – which also has interests in shale gas in the United States and shale oil in Israel – include Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild. This from a 2010 Genie Energy press release:”
            https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/02/israel-grants-oil-rights-in-syria-to-murdoch-and-rothschild/

        2. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          Thank you for this. I’m happy to ‘finally’ share your Tripoli experience..nothing will come from the ‘Cul de Sac’ in which Lebanon is now, too many foreign interests meddling, giving money, each one pulling the cover for their divide and rule sectarian interests, or US Israeli interests in the region ..(one is the Israeli trolls took control of Lebanese sites), all our Lebanese friends are gone..

          “Where IS a ‘State Of Lebanon’ at all? And who constantly prevents it from knowing itself?”

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Any visit is ‘an experience. One can often find very good people on a lovely landscape.
            (A small area can also be a lovely landscape … ;-))
            I walked in Tyre the same way in another visit … the old and new cities … and yes, at my age those friends are gone … me too soon, perhaps … the surviving children may not survive nearly as long.
            If no voices at all ‘cry from the wilderness’, Nature will carry on anyway. Nature is.

          2. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            I spent summers in the Lebanese Mountain’s wilderness as a child.
            For me they were sacred, you could see Beirut from afar and hear shootings’s, i learned nature will carry on drying the spilled blood..
            the people are tired and just want to live, why the West make us live in eternal War while they want to live in confort.

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            ‘Comfort’? ;-)) I may not call all of this ‘comfort’. For many, comfort is a lost concept.
            Your question is as old as time … why do some always seem to wish to take over an innocence and openness they see as a ‘weakness’? They barely understand the strength of that character, the love felt within it, and have no respect for it.
            I have my personal ‘theories’ of the characters I have met. I know what I admired in them. Attempting to make them ‘aware’ that certain others do not operate from the same bases of feelings seems to be a futility – because they cannot be the same when necessary.
            If one admires that character, it would be best left alone, even as it needs ‘protection’ from the more crass animals. The question changes to: ‘Why does no-one seem to wish to offer the needed protection?’
            IF ‘they’ have finally been able to ‘allow’ a small part of the always necessarily hiding ‘Amazon Race’ to continue it’s own evolution, for the sake of modern research, why do they always insist on walking over Lebanon as every army in history has? The strength in ‘being Lebanese’ is that the ‘character’ didn’t change much. 😉

          4. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Did you read André Malraux “La condition Humaine”
            It’s a phrase we use in French since that book.

            http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1954/11/06/the-human-condition

          5. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            I cannot claim to have read everything about humans … and now, don’t feel I have the time.
            But I know the phrase … and yes, there ARE many ‘conditions’ of Humans … Some not very ‘Humaine’ at all.

          6. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            You don’t read anymore?

          7. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            I’m Here .. 😉

          8. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            I was shocked, at TDS the Leb gang stoned his Honour ..Bonne nuit:)

          9. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            ‘La Condition Humaine’ was fiction. Malraux also wrote ‘La Psychology de L’Art’.
            He was France Minister of Culture and asked Chagall to paint the ceiling of the l’Opera de Paris.

        3. dateam Avatar

          how long ago was this trip?

  3. Can any one tell me what would be the significance of a Lebanese president.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      No. In a Parliamentary system it’s not needed. But Lebanon is ‘special’ … and the ‘tops’ needed to represent each MAIN ‘sect’ equally … so they invented a 3-position set of tops for a Parliament. Prime Minister, President, and House Speaker. It’s almost Religious, and is called ‘Confessional’. :-))))

      1. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        That was the constitution when Lebanon became independent with a hand shake

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar
          5thDrawer

          ‘Handshakes and Contracts’ … I’m sure everyone knows the next lines.

          1. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            It’s..err…was Arab tradition, my grand father lost big time when the hand shake party died.

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Perhaps because women do ‘hugs’, not handshakes. 😉
            The hug is about ‘love’ … the handshake about ‘honour’. The feelings involved with each may be just as passionate … however, each gender may handle the passions in different ways. I think the phrase ‘Once Bitten, Twice Shy’ applies more to the female … males tend to ‘Hedge a Bet’, and contemplate a reversal which will at least return an equality on the slopes of the sand-piles. Jockeying for position in the ‘sport’ of a life. ;-)))
            One could write a ‘Treatise’. 😉

          3. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            An ‘Expertise’..:)

    2. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      🙂 It’s a conspiracy the Levant has no leaders.

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        The supposed ‘Leaders Of Men’ believe a God sent them. Those who don’t follow are ignored.

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