File photo of Speaker Nabih Berri (R) with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah the slain leader of Hezbollah who was killed last September in an Israeli strike. Nasrallah’s boss IRGC Quds force leader Esmail Quani who was reportedly spying for Israel gave the Israeli forces the information on Nasrallah’s location. IRGC is reportedly infiltrated with Israeli spies
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told Al Jadeed that “the path is heading towards a solution and Nawaf Salam is cooperative and I did not interfere with him in the portfolios and names.”
In response to a question about a political party government or a technocrat government, he said: “The shape of the government is the task of the prime minister-designate.”
Regarding the involvement of the Shiite duo in the government, he explained that “when the prime minister-designate presents us with names, we will agree if the person is competent and reject him if he is not competent, “even if he is a good man,” stressing that “we did not accept excluding any component in the past and we will not accept it today, and no one accepts excluding Hezbollah, and “as long as there is God in heaven, Hezbollah will be around on earth”
Lebanon’s prime minister-designate Nawaf Salam vowed Tuesday to work on building a modern state in the crisis-hit country, saying his priorities will be to rebuild the destruction caused by a yearlong war with Israel and work on pulling the small nation out of its historic economic meltdown.
With the nomination of Salam and confirmation of Aoun, Lebanon, which has been run by a Hezbollah-backed caretaker administration, now has a new government in waiting for the first time in two years.
Salam met on Wednesday and Thursday in the parliament with parliamentary blocs for consultations on government formation. Salam reportedly will be naming technocrats and not politicians in his new cabinet
After meeting with Berri in Baabda on Friday , Salam said he will not marginalize any side in Lebanon, an apparent reference to the Hezbollah militant group, which in past years opposed his appointment as prime minister and this year indicated its preference for Mikati.
It is expected that as soon as Salam forms a cabinet and secures the Parliament’s vote of confidence, the next step will be to replace Berri who has been the Speaker since 1992 and who according to analysts has been for the past 2 years acting as if he owned the parliament.
Commenting on Berri’s statement linking Hezbollah to God’s fate, Ali Hussein , a prominent political l analyst told Ya Libnan: “We know that God will be around forever but neither Berri as a Speaker nor Hezbollah as an armed militia will be around for long , there time is up “