Hezbollah chief denies his party controls the Lebanese government. Calls for calm

In a televised speech today Hezbollah chief Hassan  Nasrallah denied that  his party  controls the new Lebanese government.
“The government is the government of all those taking part in it.” He said.
“Saying that the government is Hezbollah’s government is a wrong description. Ethically, this is a lie and the right description is that this government is comprised of a group of political forces in Lebanon among them Hezbollah”.

Commenting on US warning that Hezbollah could divert funding from the health ministry which it now controls he said.
“We don’t want projects, business or anything and we don’t want to be accused of anything, seeing us our primal concern is humanitarian.
Nasrallah added : The money of the Lebanese state belongs to the state and there is a legal responsibility towards this money in addition to the ethical responsibility, because the minister and the ministry are entrusted with this money.

Nasrallah went on to say : “The health minister is for all Lebanese and all regions and so is the health ministry.” .

He added: “The health minister is not a member of our party and we have taken this decision for the sake of the country’s interest.”

Nasrallah  called for combating corruption and the waste of public money  and offered to  be a   partner in addressing the difficult files.
“There is consensus that there is a financial and economic threat and therefore the government must say how it intends to prevent the financial collapse.” Nasrallah added

He concluded his speech by calling for “calm and rapprochement”.

As in the case of the formation of all previous governments  Hezbollah was accused of being behind the  delay in  formation of this government when it  pressed  a demand for one of its Sunni allies to be given a post in a new government after  politicians agreed on a  government makeup .

As a result of Hezbollah ‘s demands it took  8 months to form the government