Saniora to Nasrallah: Your Words are Hasty, Eliminate Will of People
Head of al-Mustaqbal Parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Saniora lashed out on Saturday Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, describing his remarks on shattering rules of engagement with Israel as “hasty and individual.”
“His speech deletes the will of the Lebanese people as no side is allowed to make decisions on behalf of the the state authority and the citizens,” Saniora stressed.
Saniora considered that “yesterday's speech doesn't respect the Lebanese nor their rights and inflicts more damage.”
Nasrallah declared on Friday that the party no longer recognizes the rules of engagement with Israel, saying that it has the right to respond to an Israeli attack in any way or time it deems fit.
The Mustaqbal official also criticized the heavy gunfire that coincided with Nasrallah's televised speech, lamenting that the “flurry of bullets don't serve Hizbullah's goals.”
Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi on Friday tasked the public prosecution to seek the arrest and penalization of those who opened fire in celebration Nasrallah.
The celebratory gunshots and rocket-propelled grenades sparked panic and damaged cars and the facades of some buildings in the capital Beirut and its suburbs.
The minister warned that legal measures will always be taken against anyone practicing celebratory gunfire “in any region of Lebanon” and during both “social or political occasions.”
Nasrallah's defiant speech came two days after Hizbullah carried out a missile strike that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded seven others in south Lebanon's occupied Shebaa Farms area on the border.
The strike was in retaliation for a January 18 Israeli air strike inside Syria that killed six Hizbullah fighters and an Iranian general.
“Some sides are dragging Lebanon into the heart of the storm surrounding us, but we will hold onto the state sovereignty on all its territories,” Saniora remarked.
“Our convictions didn't alter and we will not surrender... we will continue to work under the state's umbrella,” he added.
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