Naharnet

Change and Reform Urges Hizbullah to Show 'Commitment to State-Building'

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called on its ally Hizbullah to “show the same level of commitment to the principle of building the state.”

“On the anniversary of the memorandum of understanding between the Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbullah, the belief is deepening day after day that the two giants who signed this agreement had foreseen the major national necessities that required this understanding,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

“Twelve years from the Mar Mikhael declaration, we are deep-rooting it among the Lebanese so that no one manages to undermine it,” Change and Reform added, noting that it is counting on the MoU to “build a strong and just state.”

Stressing that “national unity is the immune fortress that protects the country” and that “the state is the sanctuary,” the bloc described the army as “the backbone of a strong state.”

“We hope our ally will show the same level of commitment to the principle of building the state,” Change and Reform added.

Earlier in the day, FPM chief Jebran Bassil tweeted that “the Mar Mikhael agreement strengthens Lebanon and protects it from the terrorism of Israel and the takfiris while preventing any domestic strife.”

Hizbullah had on Monday expressed “utmost keenness” on the 2006 memorandum of understanding, describing it as a “historic event.”

The memorandum “carved a new path on the Lebanese arena and it has proved effective throughout all the stages that Lebanon has gone through – from the hostile July war in 2006 to the war on terror over the past few years to the various events that the country witnessed throughout more than a decade,” Hizbullah said.

The landmark agreement was signed by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and the FPM's founder, President Michel Aoun, during a Feb. 5, 2006 ceremony at the Mar Mikhael Church in the Beirut southern suburb of Shiyyah.

In a recent interview with the Magazine weekly, Bassil said “the alliance with Hizbullah is still ongoing” but this does not mean that the two parties “have become one and the same.”

“We are in agreement on the foreign issues and we will remain a guarantee for Hizbullah inside Lebanon should the country face an aggression from Israel or terrorist groups. But unfortunately, in the domestic files we are encountering choices that do not contribute to building the state in Lebanon,” Bassil lamented.

Source: Naharnet


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