Report: Lebanese Figures Deplore Nasrallah’s Remarks

The statements made by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a speech on Tuesday marking the last day of the Shiite Ashoura commemorations raised reprehensible reactions in Lebanon.

The Saudi Asharq al-Awsat daily said that Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea urged President Michel Aoun to take Nasrallah’s remarks into consideration, mainly when he said that “Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei is our imam, leader, master and Hussein in this era. He is the leader of the axis of resistance and Iran is the heart and main center of the axis.”

“Nasrallah has no national affiliation, but rather affirms full affiliation to the (Iranian) empire that does not recognize the homelands,”said MP and ex-minister Mohammed Abdul Hamid Baydoun in remarks he made to the newspaper.

He added: “Lebanon is nothing in Nasrallah's dictionary, constitutional institutions and the presidencies are nothing but decoration, as long as foreign policy, security and defense are in his hands.”

Baydoun also stated that Hizbullah is “one of the main causes of the economic collapse in Lebanon.”

Referring to Nasrallah’s remarks about Khamenei, ex-MP Fares Soaid said: “Nothing in Lebanon’s constitution, nor in resolutions 1559 and 1701 mentions anything about “fighting under the flag of Khamenei.”

Soaid urged the Lebanese “to peacefully confront the coup, as we faced the weapons of Syria with a peaceful uprising. Fighting under any banner other than Lebanon does not resemble us.”

Lokman Slim, a political activist and co-director at UMAM Documentation and Research and a Shiite opposed to Hizbullah said that Nasrallah “admits that he is occupying Lebanon in the name of Ali Khamenei, and that Lebanon is being held hostage by its leader. Faced with this reality, we cannot talk about sovereignty under an Iran occupied country.”

Nasrallah said Hizbulah “rejects any war plans against the Iranian republic,” reiterating “our stance as part of the axis of resistance: we will not be neutral in the battle between right and wrong. This supposed war will be the end of Israel and the American hegemony and presence in the region.”