Nasrallah Urges Aoun-Mustaqbal Dialogue, Says 'Road to Jerusalem' Goes through Syria
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called Friday for a “serious dialogue” between the Free Patriotic Movement and al-Mustaqbal movement to resolve the cabinet dispute, as he declared that “the road to Jerusalem” goes through Syria.
“Weeks ago, it was obvious that the country was heading towards a clash over the issue of government and the FPM is a key party in the equation,” said Nasrallah in a televised address commemorating Quds (Jerusalem) Day.
FPM chief MP Michel “Aoun is raising legitimate demands,” Nasrallah stressed.
He said over the past weeks, “some parties believed” Hizbullah and the FPM “do not share the same stance.”
They thought that “Hizbullah is preoccupied in Syria and that Aoun was alone,” Nasrallah added.
“We insisted on consensus in the cabinet and we did not need to reach this extent,” he said.
Emphasizing that “Aoun's allies have not abandoned the FPM,” Nasrallah pointed out that some parties tried to “drive a wedge between the allies.”
Hizbullah's leader also clarified why his party did not take part Thursday in the FPM's street protests.
“Hizbullah's participation would not have been in Aoun's interest, because if we take part, a thousand accusations would be raised in our faces – Iran's nuclear program, Syria, a constituent assembly, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon -- and Aoun's demands would be lost,” said Nasrallah.
“Secondly, the man did not ask us to take part, because he understands the magnitude of the missions that Hizbullah is assuming in this period,” he noted.
Aoun announced Thursday after a stormy cabinet session and violent street protests that his movement managed to achieve its objectives from what he had dubbed as a “fateful day,” stressing that “there will be no new president” before the political forces agree on a new electoral law.
During the heated session, the cabinet's parties agreed to continue the thorny debate over the cabinet's decision-taking mechanism after Eid al-Fitr.
Aoun had called on his supporters to prepare for rallies to restore what he described as “the rights of the Christians.” Preparations for the demos began after the cabinet failed to discuss the appointment of high-ranking security and military officials.
The FPM chief has been lobbying for the appointment of Commando Regiment commander Chamel Roukoz, his son-in-law, as army chief.
“We realize the difficulty surrounding the election of a president due to the current circumstances, but it must remain everyone's priority, and we must agree on a mechanism for the work of the cabinet in the absence of a president,” said Nasrallah on Friday.
He underlined that “neither Aoun nor his allies want to topple the government, because that would plunge the entire country into vacuum.”
“I call for serious dialogue, especially between Aoun and al-Mustaqbal movement, because Mustaqbal did not honor the promises it gave to Aoun,” said Nasrallah, referring to reports that Mustaqbal had told Aoun it would endorse Roukoz's appointment as army chief as part of a package deal.
But Nasrallah asserted that Hizbullah “won't abandon” any of its allies or its alliance with the FPM.
“A bilateral dialogue should start between al-Mustaqbal and the FPM, and we might all join it later,” he said.
“Lebanon needs its civil peace, institutions and coexistence, and it has no room for elimination, exclusion or monopolization, and partnership is our destiny,” Nasrallah insisted.
Turning to Hizbullah's military intervention in Syria alongside the regime's forces, Nasrallah noted that the party's fighters who are dying in Syria are making sacrifices for the sake of “resistant Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.”
Citing a famous Lebanese civil war statement by senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Abu Iyad, Nasrallah stated that “the road to Jerusalem does not go through Jounieh.”
But “it goes through Qalamoun, Zabadani, Daraa and Hasakeh, because if Syria is lost, Palestine would be lost,” he explained.
Y.R.
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