Qassem Stresses 'Firmness' of Hizbullah's Ties with AMAL, FPM

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has stressed that his party's ties with its two allies the AMAL Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement are “firm” and “strategic.”

“Our alliance with the AMAL Movement is as firm and solid as the firmness and strength of this land... and we will remain keen on the strength of this alliance,” Qassem underlined during a Ashoura ceremony in the southern city of Tyre.

“We will not renounce this alliance no matter what that might cost us, seeing as it is the honor and dignity that we will cling to,” he added.

Turning to Hizbullah's alliance with the FPM, Qassem described it as “a firm and strategic national alliance.”

“At some junctures, the parties that reject this alliance try to stir some disputes and claim that we are confused, but everyone must be confident that this alliance is firm and it will stay like this until the end,” Hizbullah number two said.

“We are the people of loyalty and we commit to what we declare and express. This alliance contains a definite interest for Lebanon, its sects and everyone, and both alliances with AMAL Movement and the FPM are contributing to Lebanon's cohesion, sovereignty and advancement.”

Some parties have accused Hizbullah of refraining from using its influence to persuade AMAL leader and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to endorse FPM founder MP Michel Aoun's presidential nomination in a bid to prolong the presidential vacuum.

Relations between Aoun and Berri have always been tense and media reports have said that the speaker will not endorse the FPM founder for the presidency unless he is offered guarantees related to several important ministerial portfolios.

Ex-PM Saad Hariri's recent return to Lebanon has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that the former premier has finally decided to endorse Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.