MP says Hezbollah has 'nothing to offer' before govt. honors 'commitments'

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah on Saturday said “the stances we’re hearing from some of the government components do not only contravene the Ministerial Statement, but are against it and its total opposite.”

These stances “evade the responsibilities that were pledged to the Lebanese people,” Fadlallah added.

He noted that the first three clauses of the Ministerial Statement talk about post-war reconstruction, deterring Israel and taking steps to liberate Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory.

“But what have they done regarding these three clauses? Has the government implemented what it had committed itself to in the reconstruction file? There are five or six clauses that should be implemented before tackling the issue of defending Lebanon, which requires a national security strategy,” Fadlallah added, referring to the thorny issue of Hezbollah’s arms.

“Let no one ask us to implement the Ministerial Statement in a reversed manner, in a way putting the cart before the horse. Implement your obligations first and then request things from us, because we no longer have anything to offer to anyone in any form, neither in south Lebanon, nor outside south Lebanon, nor in any region, because we have offered what we have and we’ve implemented what we had committed ourselves to on all levels,” the lawmaker went on to say.

“According to the constitutional and legal texts, the incumbent government is obliged to implement the stipulations of this Ministerial Statement, and we have no other words about anything else. When they implement these clauses we would talk about the other things,” Fadlallah added.