Mustaqbal Urges MPs Not to 'Assassinate Lebanon': Hizbullah Wants Govt. that Legitimizes its Wars

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday urged Lebanon's MPs not to take part in Wednesday's parliament session that has the controversial Orthodox Gathering draft electoral law as a sole item on its agenda, noting that Hizbullah wants any new cabinet to legitimize the “wars” it is fighting outside Lebanon.

“Al-Mustaqbal bloc rejects and strongly condemns Speaker Nabih Berri's unilateral administration of parliament, which breaches all norms and bylaws, especially in terms of setting the agenda and administering parliamentary sessions,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

On Monday, the parliament's bureau met in Ain el-Tineh to agree on the agenda of the sessions that Berri has called for starting Wednesday to approve a new electoral draft-law. But later in the day, the parliament's general-secretariat placed only the Orthodox Gathering proposal on the agenda, which prompted Mustaqbal, the National Struggle Front and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati to declare their boycott of the session.

"Insistence on placing the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal as a sole item on the session's agenda, without allowing the discussion of other proposals, will open the door to undermining Lebanon's foundations which are based on coexistence, renouncing the Taef Accord and committing an unforgivable crime against the country and its national unity,” the bloc added.

“Al-Mustaqbal bloc declares that it will not take part in a session aimed at approving a law that would fragment Lebanon and take it back to the age of decadence and sectarian and religious apartheid,” it said, urging “the lawmakers of the nation not to take part in a session aimed at approving the assassination of Lebanon and the destruction of its coexistence and future.”

Turning to the issue of the cabinet formation process, the bloc rejected “all the methods of intimidation and blackmail that are being used by Hizbullah and its cronies against Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam.”

“Hizbullah's obstruction of the formation of a cabinet that serves the interests of the Lebanese and restores confidence in the state and its institutions stems from this party's desire and need for a cabinet that bestows legitimacy on the wars it engages in outside the border and against the brotherly Syrian people,” the bloc charged.

It warned that Hizbullah's “adherence to its stance on the cabinet will drag the country into a spiral of vacuum,” saying the party “will bear the responsibility for the negative repercussions.”

Criticizing the remarks voiced on Thursday by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the bloc said Hizbullah's leader “announced that Hizbullah has turned into a mobile fighting force that receives orders from Iran and engages in the wars and crises of the region, which would further implicate Lebanon and the Lebanese in endless crises and major and grave threats.”

“Through his remarks, Sayyed Nasrallah is trying to tear apart the concept of the Lebanese nation and usurp Lebanon's constitutional institutions and role in the region and the world, in order to move to the concept of turning Lebanon into a military base and an open Iranian arena,” the bloc charged.

On Thursday, Nasrallah said Syria will supply Hizbullah with "game-changing weapons," despite Israel's air strikes reportedly aimed at cutting off the flow of arms, and vowed to back “the Syrian popular resistance” in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In a previous speech, Nasrallah said Hizbullah will not hesitate to help the Lebanese residents of the Syrian border area of Qusayr, stressing that “these people have the right to do everything to defend themselves and have the right to receive assistance."

He also announced that Hizbullah is taking part in defending Shiite holy shrines in the Damascus province.

Al-Mustaqbal and its March 14 allies and the Syrian opposition have accused the party of fighting alongside the Syrian regime against Syrian rebels.