Moussawi Defends 'Resistance Brigades', Says Saudi Blocking Aoun's Election

Hizbullah MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi on Monday defended the Hizbullah-linked Resistance Brigades after Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq's latest criticism of the group and accused Riyadh of blocking the election of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun as president.

“The campaigns against a main faction of the resistance factions in Lebanon, the Resistance Brigades, are aimed at harming its reputation and attacking its nature, structure and objectives,” said Moussawi during a Hizbullah ceremony in the southern town of Kafra.

“We know the motives behind these campaigns and we do not intend to engage in an exchange of tirades with anyone... We know that the political and media campaigns against the Resistance Brigades are aimed at dragging us into a debate that conceals the contradictions inside the other camp, which is divided over the presidential elections,” the MP added, apparently referring to Mustaqbal Movement.

“We also know that the internal rift in the other camp reflects the hesitation of its regional leadership (Saudi Arabia), which has not apparently informed its MPs in Lebanon of its decision until the moment. It has not given them the nod to elect General Aoun as president,” Moussawi claimed.

On Friday, Interior Minister Mashnouq of Mustaqbal Movement blasted the Hizbullah-affiliated Resistance Brigades as “occupation brigades.”

“The latest show of force was what I read in a newspaper that the Resistance Brigades – whom I call the strife brigades – have a 50,000-strong army as well as domestic missions,” said Mashnouq.

The decision to create the Resistance Brigades was taken in 1997 by Hizbullah's leadership. The group comprised Lebanese young men who wanted to fight the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon without having to officially join Hizbullah.

The group was not disbanded after Israel's withdrawal from the South in the year 2000 and Hizbullah's rivals have in recent years accused the Brigades of recruiting “thugs” and individuals who have criminal records.

Moreover, Moussawi added in his speech on Monday that “real partnership with Christians” in state institutions “begins by electing General Aoun as president,” stressing that Aoun's nomination enjoys the biggest popular and political support in the Christian community.

“We know that a lot of Mustaqbal Movement officials and MPs support the election of General Aoun but they cannot oppose the will of their regional leadership, which is still rejecting settlements and agreements in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon,” the lawmaker added.

He also called for “separating the Lebanese file from the crises of the region,” urging Lebanon's friends to “exert efforts with a well-known regional country to persuade it to free the presidential post from its captivity and not to link it to the Yemeni and Syrian crises.”

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival.

The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.