Nasrallah criticizes al-Rahi and Bassil over presidency, govt.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has hit out at Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil over the files of the presidential vote and the caretaker cabinet.

“We understand that some religious leaders are practicing political and media pressure on the political forces represented in parliament to expedite the presidential election, but one must refrain from sectarian incitement,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech, in an apparent jab at al-Rahi.

“I can confirm that no bloc or political forces are seeking to eliminate the top Maronite post” in the state, Nasrallah added, stressing that “everyone wants to end the political vacuum in order to form a government and return things to their normal course.”

Nasrallah also reiterated that it is Hezbollah’s “natural right” to say that it does not want a president who would “stab the resistance in the back.”

He, however, added that it is also “the natural right of any bloc to say that it does not want a president who is close to Hezbollah.”

Turning to the controversy over caretaker cabinet sessions, Nasrallah said Hezbollah has a “constitutional belief that the caretaker cabinet has the right to convene to take decisions on pressing and necessary issues that cannot be postponed.”

“Had we not taken part in the cabinet session, the entire media and political choir and the hired writers would have claimed for weeks that Hezbollah was blocking cancer and dialysis medicines and was to blame for the overflowing of villages and cities with garbage. They wouldn’t have blamed the FPM or anyone else,” Nasrallah argued.

He added that Hezbollah’s attendance of Wednesday’s cabinet session was aimed at “addressing the electricity file.”

“This is not aimed at challenging anyone -- neither our attendance nor our withdrawal should the session tackle other files,” he said.

And responding to remarks voiced Tuesday by Bassil, Nasrallah added: “We don’t want to infringe on a system, a constitution, a National Pact or a partnership. We are rather addressing a pressing issue for the Lebanese in the available manner.”