Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday pointed out in a televised speech that “when the United States of America tries to justify the reason for its logistical support for the Lebanese army, it says it is in order to confront Hezbollah.”
“We have always called for the strengthening of the Lebanese army and demand that it will have real missile capabilities and air defenses, and to be capable of defending Lebanon’s sovereignty, people, waters and land in the face of Israeli threats,” Nasrallah stressed.
In his speech, Nasrallah pointed out: “We sought some friendly countries, such as Iran, to extend a helping hand to the Lebanese army, and a meeting was arranged for the Lebanese Defense Minister in Iran, but political calculations prevented that,” calling for supporting the army and backing it locally.
“We regard the Lebanese army institution as the real guarantee for security stability in Lebanon,” Nasrallah underlined.
Turning to the government dossier, Nasrallah indicated that "some in Lebanon hold us and Iran responsible for the actual disruption of the formation process to settle accounts and distort our image. After Hariri’s resignation, we sought to secure consensus yet we did not succeed, so we resorted to the ‘one-color’ government. We do not seek disruption nor vacuum, and all these accusations are unfair, fraud and slander.”
"We do not await any outside help, and internal efforts must join together to come up with an acceptable and effective government formula,” the Secretary General corroborated.
He continued: "I am the first to ask for the assistance of a friend to try to resolve the government file, namely Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. As such, we reached an agreement on the number of government ministers, and it was agreed to distribute the portfolios among the various parties."
Nasrallah pointed out that the 8-8-8 formula in the government file led to confusion, and some felt that this was a trilogy that created illusions upon which wrong political positions were built.
The Secretary General also stressed that what Bassil has asked for has nothing to do with authorization over Christian rights.
Nasrallah indicated that Bassil did not seek to create problems between Amal Movement and Hezbollah, but rather has “asked for my help as a friend, as I had asked for Berri’s help as a friend, and we will work to reach an acceptable formula for both the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic.”
Nasrallah went on to say that time is short and the natural way to get out of the crisis is to form a government capable of confronting all the problems of our people.
"What we are witnessing on the issue of gasoline, electricity, food and medicine should be a moral pressure on those concerned to form a government."
About importing gasoline and diesel from Iran, he said: "It just needs permission to proceed. We have completed the administrative and logistical preparations."
He pointed out that the country is heading towards lifting subsidies without any government decision, calling for the formation of a committee from all the partners in the previous governments to discuss rationalizing or lifting subsidy, because responsibility is shouldered by everyone.
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