Safieddine Slams Those Delaying Govt. for 'Personal Goals'

A senior Hizbullah official on Monday lashed out at “those hiding behind political and sectarian interests in order to achieve personal goals.”

“The problem is not in the so-called points of contention. We are rather facing some politicians who want to achieve personal goals that they were not able to achieve during the ordinary days, and they are now taking advantage of people’s suffering and pain to achieve them,” Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hizbullah’s Executive Council, said, referring to the government formation crisis.

“When we speak of initiatives -- specifically the initiative on which Speaker Nabih Berri, Hizbullah and all those keen on pulling the country out of its dilemma are insisting – we see that some are pushing for despair while we are pushing toward hope,” Safieddine added, noting that “there are two rhetorics in Lebanon.”

“Some perhaps don’t realize that the bets they are adopting, even at the expense of the people and their plight, will sink them and sink the country together,” the Hizbullah official went on to say.

He however added that Hizbullah “will keep clinging to the successive initiatives” in order to spare Lebanon “real disasters.”

“Mistaken are those who think that our constant keenness on initiatives will give them further time,” Safieddine went on to say, urging a speedy solution in order to meet “people’s essential needs.”

“Politics must be in the service of citizens’ interests, not the opposite,” the Hizbullah official said.

He also emphasized that “political maneuvers must end when it comes to the public interest and the grand interests.”

“Those pulling political maneuvers, conditions and counter-conditions must realize that they are tampering with the dignity of the Lebanese and the national interests,” Safieddine added.