NBN Calls FPM ‘Free Fall Movement’ as Amal MP Scheduled to Respond to Bassil
The political aide to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Ali Hassan Khalil, will hold today a press conference in response to Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil’s speech.
Bassil on Sunday pinned his frustration on the Amal Movement, saying that in recent months Hizbullah has backed Berri at the expense of their own alliance that is “no longer working.”
“We reached an understanding with Hizbullah (in 2006) not with Amal,” Bassil said in an hour-long speech. “When we discover that the one making decisions (in this alliance) is Amal, it is our right to reconsider.”
Berri, an old-time rival of Bassil, had reportedly asked his officials not to hit back, when President Michel Aoun gave a speech last week as “the speech came up less than expected,” according to Amal sources.
But today, a heated response is expected.
Berri’s NBN slammed Bassil on Sunday, saying that the Free Patriotic Movement has become a “free fall movement” and that he was solely right when he said that “he lacks understanding.”
Shiite duo circles described “Bassil’s determination to come between Hizbullah and Amal as a desperate attempt,” the PSP's al-Anbaa news portal reported Monday.
The news portal also added that Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s circles were surprised that Bassil didn’t mention in his speech the government and the Cabinet sessions’ resumption, hinting that the speech likely had electoral purposes.
Lebanese Forces sources, for their part, said that Bassil who is “claiming to have clean hands” has been placed on a U.S. sanctions list for corruption. Bassil claims the sanctions are to pressure him to undo his alliance with Hizbullah.
Meanwhile, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will give a speech today to mark the second anniversary of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani’s death by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq two years ago.
It is not known whether he will respond to Bassil who signaled an unprecedented level of frustration with Hizbullah and suggested the 2006 alliance was in jeopardy.
Bassil’s comments come ahead of critical parliamentary elections in which his party is expecting tough competition. Undoing the alliance with Hizbullah would cost him more votes in the May elections.
But the FPM’s chief, believed to have ambitions to run for president himself, said the alliance is costing him credibility with supporters.
Recently, Hizbullah and Amal have been widely critical of the investigation into last year’s Beirut Port investigation, accusing the judge of being biased against their allies— a position at odds with Bassil's party.
Hizbullah has asked for the judge to be removed, leading to a paralysis within the government. Deadly clashes in October that pitted Amal and Hizbullah supporters against Christian gunmen were triggered by the investigation dispute and further strained relations with Bassil’s party, which accused Amal of the violence.