Bassil says it was Hezbollah that abandoned MoU, not FPM

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has said that the the FPM’s 2006 memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah “has not collapsed” although it needs “improvement.”

“Its ideas remain valid but it needs improvement, something that has not happaned,” Bassil said during the FPM’s annual dinner.

“The FPM did not abandon the MoU. It was Hezbollah that abandoned it when it first gave up state building and afterwards partnership, and most recently when it exceeded the extent of protecting Lebanon,” Bassil added.

Noting that “the FPM has not changed its stance and it still supports resistance against Israel and terrorism, as long as the army alone is not capable of performing this mission,” the FPM chief stressed that “Palestine’s liberation is not the responsibility of Lebanon alone.”

“It is first and foremost the responibility of the Palestinians,” he said.

“Lebanon cannot be neutral in the conflict with Israel, but it can distance itself from conflicts that harm it,” Bassil went on to say.