Mashnouq Says No 'Sectarian Dispute' in Beirut, Slams 'Political Velayat-e Faqih'

Interior Minister and Beirut parliamentary candidate Nouhad al-Mashnouq stressed Wednesday that “there is no sectarian dispute in Beirut.”

“The dispute is political par excellence and it has nothing to do with religion whatsoever,” Mashnouq added during electoral campaign meetings in the capital.

“Some regions have been affected by imported sectarianism but Beirut has been the least affected, because it is the capital of culture, the seat of the state and the place where all people work and meet,” the minister explained.

He noted that the rivalry is “between two political projects, not between two sects.”

“We do not have a problem with the religious velayat-e faqih, which is a personal issue that does not concern us, whereas the political velayat-e faqih contradicts with the idea of the national State, which brings together citizens whose loyalty should be only to their State,” Mashnouq added, referring to Shiite Iran's form of Islamic governance which is endorsed by Lebanon's Hizbullah.

The minister pointed out that the “fiery rhetoric” of Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in his recent electoral speeches is “aimed at creating a one-third veto power in parliament in order to implement his political project through parliamentary polls and ballot boxes, after he failed to do so through politics in the period between May 7, 2008 and today.”