Loyalty to Resistance Voices Solidarity with FPM, Slams Mustaqbal's 'Unilateral Policies'

Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc voiced “solidarity” Thursday with the Free Patriotic Movement in the wake of street protests by the FPM over the government's decision-taking mechanism.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc said it discussed “the growing political crisis in the country and means to overcome it in a manner that reactivates the work of the cabinet and the parliament and creates an opportunity to fill the presidential void.”

It accused the rival al-Mustaqbal movement and “its lackeys” of endorsing “policies of unilateralism, arrogance and marginalization of the partners in the country throughout the past years.”

The alleged policies have “undermined the state, paralyzed its constitutional institutions and pushed the aggrieved to raise the voice to demand the rights that were usurped through the bad implementation of the Taef Accord,” Loyalty to Resistance added.

“The campaign that some parties are waging against the methods of action that the FPM is being pushed to will not succeed in diverting the attention of the Lebanese from the unilateral and exclusionary policies that prompted the FPM to launch its protests against the entire decaying situation,” the bloc stressed.

“Based on our commitment to the Constitution, and its inseparable preamble, we renew our solidarity with the FPM regarding the country's interest in real partnership, and we call on everyone to a brave reevaluation that would allow an agreement on rectifying the course and reviving the institutions,” Loyalty to Resistance went on to say.

It called on the government to “abide by the mechanism of consensus in taking cabinet decisions to guarantee the needed balance amid these extraordinary situations.”

The bloc also warned that "paralyzing the parliament's legislative and supervisory roles has harmed the interests of the country and the citizens, reflected negatively on the regularity of the cabinet's work, and complicated the presidential vacuum crisis.”

Earlier on Thursday, FPM chief MP Michel Aoun announced 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.

Y.R.