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Consultations will be held Monday and Tuesday at the Baabda Presidential Palace as March 14 MPs are set to nominate caretaker PM Saad Hariri for the post, while the opposition will nominate another Muslim Sunni figure. Opposition MPs will agree on one of the three strong candidates: Former PM Omar Karameh, Former PM Najib Mikati, and former Minister Mohamad Safadi.
On the STL, Sayyed Nasrallah lashed out at prosecutor Daniel Bellemare for deciding to threaten to prosecute any side that will leak any information about the indictment, which he submitted to pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen last week. “What is really strange is that years have passed since the details of the international investigation were leaked to the press and Bellemare remained silent; because all the leaks were serving the purpose of targeting Hezbollah and Syria. Bellemare submitted his indictment last Monday at a time when binding consultations were scheduled; this was part of the politicization of the STL, however, consultations were postponed. We used to hear that Fransen would need between six to ten weeks to look into the details of the indictment, but we have come to notice that the steps have been hastened and a February 7 date was set for a public hearing; it is clear that the indictment is being employed for political reasons.”
Al-Jadeed TV has been broadcasting the testimonies of politicians and security officers to the international investigation, including that of Hariri. The audio broadcast revealed Hariri had known false witness Zuhair Siddiq, whose testimony led to the arbitrary imprisonment of four top security generals and put the country on the verge of civil war between 2005 and 2010. Apparently, Bellemare was threatening the Lebanese TV station.
The Hezbollah chief stressed the party will wait for the publication of the indictment, which is expected to implicate Hezbollah in the assassination of martyr Rafiq Hariri. “Our initial response was toppling the government, but I will leave my final and detailed response until the indictment was made public. If you [Hariri and his March 14 allies] wanted to employ this particular stage [of Bellemare and Fransen] to pressure us, my response is that after the release of the indictment, we will not yield to anything that has been imposed on us.”
Sayyed Nasrallah also said that the opposition was looking forward to forming a national unity government, should opposition MPs were able to nominate the new PM. “We are not seeking a uniform government; we don’t want to cancel anyone because we respect the representation of everyone. We have disagreed on the premiership issue, however this does not mean that anyone in the opposition wants to delete any other side. The new government should be characterized with cooperation, not with vexation.”
His eminence dismissed as fabricated lies what some March 14 politicians have been trying to circulate about harming the Sunni sect in case anyone other than Hariri was nominated for the PM post. “These are fabricated lies and we will prove this if our candidate was to form the new government.”
Sayyed Nasrallah also condemned libels against former PM Omar Karameh by Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea. “Unfortunately, the libeling comes from the person whom the Lebanese justice system had charged with killing Karameh’s brother, PM Rashid Karameh. Allow me to say that the house of the Karameh family is honest and cannot be accused of corruption. To offend the Karameh family is to offend us all. All of this campaign against him was because he was said be the opposition’s candidate. For your information, Karameh did not ask to be nominated. Unlike the other camp who spared no country throughout this past week to help in pushing one single candidate, Karameh did not knock on anyone’s door. I have talked to Karameh and I told him: we need your approval on the candidacy of anyone, including you, who would want to run for this post. His response was to thank the opposition for trusting him and said that due to his age, it was better for us to name someone else. He added that if there were no other choice, then he will take the responsibility. My response was that he was our first choice. Karameh did not contact anyone. He just left things to take their natural course.”
The Secretary General addressed the “political assassination” which Hariri had raised on Friday. “I would like to say that in Lebanon, Sunni figures had occupied the post of PM and then they were succeeded by others. So we have a long queue of PM, none of which has ever said that a democratic step, like the one we took, was tantamount to “political assassination.” You [Hariri and his March 14 allies] have been calling for the respect of the democratic game, and in such a game, parliamentary blocs are not obliged to agree on a single candidate. Are these blocs, from this or that political camp, assassinating each other’s candidates? Parliamentary blocs have the right to reject someone in particular, away from his representation, because the post of premier is not a representative position but pioneer position. To say that not naming Hariri is equivalent to political assassination is mere intimidation.”
His eminence continued: “What protects Lebanon today is the Resistance – Army – People formula through an Israeli – acknowledged balance of deterrence. Isn’t what is happening today a political assassination of the resistance for Israel’s sake? We are not going to cancel anyone, but we reiterate what you’ve been saying: There will be consultations. We have practiced our constitutional right to topple the government, and eventually, no one is seeking to assassinate anyone. We have to cooperate to overpass this stage. The Israelis, who have been for a year or two predicting this to happen, are closely watching us.”
Sayyed Nasrallah concluded his discourse saying: “If an opposition backed candidate was nominated, I hope that he be supported and given a chance to form a government. Then you will see whether this government will work in line with the interest of the Lebanese or not. Practicality will be the arbitrator between us, if you really adhere to Lebanon. But if Lebanon’s fate depended on a person, then this will be a disaster and contempt to our country and to the Lebanese people.”
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