Nasrallah Expected to Give Speech Two Days After Commemoration Anniversary of Hariri

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will likely make a televised appearance which reports predicted will take place on February 16, two days after the commemoration of the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

“Nasrallah will make a televised appearance soon to mark Hizbullah's Martyrs Day,” said the daily.

Although the party celebrates this memory yearly, but a date has not been officially specified yet, it added.

Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said without elaborating that Nasrallah's speech will take place on February 16 and that it will drive the attention in terms of the new participants in the ceremony.

In his speech late in January, Nasrallah addressed the thorny file of the presidency where he renewed adherence to the nomination of Change and Reform bloc head MP Michel Aoun, without hiding cordiality to the Marada chief MP Suleiman Franjieh.

He had said: “Even if another dear friend is nominated, it will not push me to renounce my ethical commitment to General Aoun, and this does not mean that (Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman) Franjieh does not deserve to become president.”

Lebanon marks the eleventh anniversary of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated on February 14, 2005.