Nasrallah: No Role for Iran in Presidential Issue, Saudi Blocking Peace in Syria, Yemen
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah noted Friday that Iran will not play any role in Lebanon's presidential elections as he accused Saudi Arabia of seeking to torpedo the Syrian and Yemeni peace talks.
“There is nothing new regarding the presidential issue and the accusations that Hizbullah is obstructing the elections have not stopped,” said Nasrallah in a televised address during a ceremony organized by the Hizbullah-affiliated Islamic Resistance Support Organization.
“We do not want to engage in an exchange of tirades with anyone. Those who want the elections to happen must know that part of the solution is in Saudi Arabia and the other part is here in Lebanon,” Nasrallah added.
“Do not count on Iran's stances and you better negotiate with the relevant parties,” he went on to say, referring to Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun, his main Christian ally.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, the FPM and some of their allies have been boycotting the electoral sessions, demanding a prior agreement on the president's identity.
Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Riyadh, launched late in 2015 an initiative to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his move was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.
Separately, Nasrallah underlined “the importance of the municipal polls” that will kick off on Sunday, describing municipalities as “mini-governments.”
“Effective participation is needed in the municipal elections and there should not be any approach of despair,” he said.
Turning to the situation in the region, Hizbullah's leader accused Saudi Arabia of “intensifying its contacts with Israel.”
“A key prince from the ruling family met today with Zionist figures. These contacts have started to surface and in Saudi Arabia they are preparing the atmosphere for boosting the contacts with Israel,” he alleged.
Nasrallah also accused Riyadh of seeking to undermine the Geneva and Kuwait peace talks that are aimed at resolving the Syrian and Yemeni crises.
“Saudi Arabia is exerting efforts to escalate the situation on the ground in Yemen rather than to preserve the ceasefire. As for Syria, Saudi Arabia is strongly pushing for undermining all kinds of ceasefires, especially in Aleppo,” he charged.
“Saudi Arabia is trying to torpedo the negotiations in order to achieve its goals. In Kuwait, it is trying to impose surrender terms but the Yemeni answer was clear: 'We came here to negotiate, not to surrender,'” Nasrallah added.
“In Geneva, the Syrian opposition delegation that is subordinate to Riyadh procrastinates then goes to the negotiations and says, 'Cede power to us.' If these mercenaries rise to power, will they be able to prevent the fall of Syria into the hands of (al-Qaida-linked) al-Nusra (Front) and Daesh (Islamic State group)?,” Nasrallah went on to say.
Referring to the Syrian regime, Yemen's Huthi rebels and their allies, Hizbullah's chief stressed that “those who have been fighting in Yemen for a year now and those who fought for five years in Syria are not willing to surrender or to put their lives at the mercy of al-Qaida and al-Nusra.”
Y.R.
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