Raad: Country Needs Real Partnership, Resistance Creating, Preserving Security

Hizbullah's top lawmaker Mohammed Raad stressed Monday that the country needs “real consensus and understanding over the meaning of national partnership,” while noting that “the Resistance is creating and preserving security” in Lebanon.

“The country needs real consensus and understanding over the meaning of national partnership in governance and citizenship, because ambiguity in this issue would lead to confusion and obstruct all the solutions to our problems and crises,” Raad, the head of the Loyalty to Resistance bloc, said.

“Amid all this clamor and malicious political practices, the Resistance is distancing itself and focusing on protecting these pettish parties in our country and all citizens regardless of their sects and affiliations, and on protecting the sovereignty of the country that we are living in,” Raad added.

“The Resistance is ready and is improving its readiness amid all this suffering,” the MP went on to say.

Turning to the Israeli threat, Raad said “only the Resistance's readiness is stopping Israel from waging a war against Lebanon and the region.”

“The Resistance is creating and preserving security and stability, although it does not claim that it is doing so without understanding and cooperation with our Lebanese army and security agencies. However, it is doing so regardless of the political atmosphere that is stuck in the minds of some of this country's political class,” the lawmaker said.

Hizbullah's ally the Free Patriotic Movement, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings over accusations that other parties in the country are not respecting the National Pact.

Hizbullah expressed solidarity with the FPM by boycotting last Thursday's cabinet session.

The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on Christian-Muslim partnership.

The FPM's boycott of cabinet meetings was initially linked to the thorny issue of military and security appointments. The movement has long voiced reservations over the government's decision-taking mechanism in the absence of a president.

Addressing Prime Minister Tammam Salam, FPM chief Jebran Bassil has recently said that “the son of late PM Saeb Salam must pay great attention when he says that the government is respecting the National Pact when it convenes in the presence of ministers representing only six percent of a main component of the country (Christians).”

Bassil has also warned that the country might be soon plunged into a “political system crisis” if the other parties do not heed the FPM's demands regarding Muslim-Christian “partnership.”

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh hit back at Bassil last Monday, saying Marada and the other Christian parties in the cabinet “represent a lot more than six percent.”