By Sami Haddad
In a speech marking the end of the 2006 war with Israel Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah accused his rivals of planning to block the Parliamentary quorum to prevent the election of a president for Lebanon.
“They want to block the quorum and they want a president who would confront Hezbollah instead of rescuing state institutions”.
Lebanon has been without a president since the end of October 2023 when Michel Aoun’s term expired .
The parliament failed in 12 sessions to elect a president , primarily because of the lack of a qurom.
Paliament Speaker Nabih Berri a staunch ally of Hezbollah blocked the qurom following every session by making sure that all his allies leave the parliament after the first round.
According to the Lebanese constitution if no candidate secures two-third of the parliamentary vote in the first round the parliament should remain in session until the candidate that secures a simple majority of half plus one of the votes gets elected .
Hezbollah , whose candiidate is Suleiman Franjieh, a close friend of Syrian dicataor Badsahar al Assad has with some help from the French leadership been trying to get his candidate elected . During the last session Franjieh secured 51 votes in the first round while the opposition’s candidate Jihad Azour , a former minister and the head of the IMF in the middle East seured 60 votes but one of his votes went missing .
“The famous Arabic proverb ضربني وبكى وسبقني واشتكى . (He beat me and cried, and went before me to complain) applies to Nasrallah”, Ali Hussein a Lebanese political analyst told me .
Nasrallah whose militant force is stronger than the Lebanese army also accused the opposition of of seeking civil war and denied he is waging a psychological warfare on the opposition.
Hezbollah was created by Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 1982 and continues to be funded and trained by Iran.
At the end of the 1975- 1990 civil war when Lebanon was occup[ied by Syria all the militias handed over their arms to the lebanese army , except Hezbollah
“I am not waging psychological warfare on the Lebanese”, He claimed.
Following its war with Israel Hezbollah pointed its guns against the lebnaese people . It first occupied downtown Beirut and In May 2008 it occupied the predominantly Sunni and Christian western part of Beirut and attempted but failed to occupy the Druze stronghold of Mt Lebanon.
Nasrallah who openly declared his allegiance to Iran and its supreme leader in 2019 also accused the opposition of serving Israel’s objective regarding Hezbollah’s disarmament.
Because we have logic and reason and because we are not weak or followers of anyone, we do not fear dialogue and we are ready for dialogue although we are not begging for it.
This comes after the opposition refused any dialogue with Hezbollah and insisted that the president should be elected firsts and before any dialogue .
He also accused the opposition of siding with the US , which rejected the French proposal for the presidential election
“Had the (French) envoy been American, would you have rejected his letter? , He asked
Nasrallah claimed that his Iranian backed party is the real advocate of of sovereignty in Lebanon
“We are the real advocates of sovereignty in Lebanon and they are the followers of America”. he said.
Addressing the issue of UNIFIL and Lebanon’s rejectection of amending its mandate from chapter VI to Chapter VII Nasrallah said .
“The Lebanese government is trying to correct last year’s mistake regarding the UNIFIL extension resolution and questioned the presence of UNIFIL in south Lebnaon.
Chapter VI calls for “the peaceful resolution of conflicts,” while Chapter VII “calls for the imposition of Resolution 1701 by force.”
” Why is UNIFIL only present in Lebanon? Why is there no UNIFIL in northern Israel?, He asked and went on to say
” The Americans want the south to be devoid of any defense capabilities. They want UNIFIL to be spies for Israel.”
He went as far as accusing the UNIFIL of siding with Israel .
“The U.N. Security Council is not seeing the Israeli violations in Lebanon and the new occupation in Ghajar, he said .
Ghajar, a Syrian village was occupied by Israel in its 1967 war with Syria and is part of the Golan Heights . It is inhabited by Syrians who adopted he Israeli citizenship. The northern part of Ghajar was part of the Lebanese territories till 2006 but was occupied by Israel in 2006 during its war with Hezbollah . Like the southern part It is also inhahabied by Syrians who adopted he Israeli citizenship.
UNIFIL was established by the Security Council in 1978 under Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426 to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restore international peace and security, and assist the Lebanese Government in restoring its effective authority in the area.
Following the July-August 2006 war, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1701 enhancing UNIFIL and deciding that in addition to the original mandate, it would, among other things, monitor the cessation of hostilities; accompany and support the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) as they deploy throughout the south of Lebanon; and extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons
Assassinations
Nasrallah accused Israel of planning assassinations in Lebanon and warned of a powerful response
“Any Israeli assassination on Lebanese soil will have a powerful response and we won’t allow that Lebanon be once again an arena for assassinations.
Ever since 2004 all the political assassinations in Lebanon were linked to Hezbollah .
The most famous politician that was assassinated was former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated on Vanlentine day in 2005 . Three of hezbollah operatves were indicted in his murder
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