Nasrallah Hopes March 14 Will be 'Allowed' to Return to Dialogue, Warns Alternative is 'Chaos'
Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday hoped the rival March 14 camp will be “allowed” to return to the national dialogue table, warning that the alternative to dialogue would be “chaos.”
“Only dialogue is possible and no one wants to eliminate the other. We hope they will be allowed to return to dialogue and we hope dialogue will resume. Dialogue is prohibited in Syria because the Americans, the West and Israel are not allowing the Syrian opposition to engage in dialogue,” Nasrallah said in a televised address during an iftar banquet held by the women’s activities department of the Islamic Resistance Support Organization.
“We hope they (March 14 forces) will not put preconditions for resuming dialogue because the alternative to dialogue is the chaos they (the West and its allies) are seeking to spread in the region,” Nasrallah added.
President Michel Suleiman is continuing his consultations to resume the national dialogue on August 16 as he is seeking to ensure that all participants are present at the all-party talks, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday.
Sources close to the president highlighted the need to resume the talks amid the critical local and regional situation. They stressed that he will not back down from his demand to continue the talks.
Meanwhile, prominent March 14 political sources ruled out the possibility that the dialogue will be held on time “because the consultations would not have been ripe prior to the date.” It is likely therefore that the national dialogue would be postponed again.
The all-party talks were initially postponed over the March 14 camp’s decision to boycott the meeting over the failure to hand over telecom data to the security forces and the failure to tackle Hizbullah’s possession of arms. The telecom data has since been handed to security forces.
“The other camp does not want a defense strategy. It rather wants two things: the Resistance's weapons and the resignation of the government,” Nasrallah charged.
“The March 14 government is a government of taxes and a government of the financial elite. Should the March 14 forces rise to power, they will create fronts against Syria in the North and the Bekaa, while this government has managed to disassociate itself,” Hizbullah’s leader noted.
Addressing the controversy over his group’s arsenal of weapons, Nasrallah said: “There are fears that the weapons are in the possession of the Shiites, but let us talk rationally: all the Lebanese are threatened and this resistance represents a force of deterrence amid the fears, so what can we do? Rationally speaking, we must dispel the fears and preserve the resistance in order to ward off the Israeli threats.”
“The March 14 camp is saying that the presence of arms will prevent holding elections in Lebanon, but the 2005 elections were held in the presence of arms and you won the majority and the 2009 elections and the recent Koura by-election were also held amid the presence of arms,” Nasrallah added, addressing the March 14 forces.
He stressed that “the Resistance's arms were not used to impose electoral lists, while some political forces in other areas terrorized people with their weapons.”
“Accusations that we are behind the chaos of weapons are unacceptable, as all the Lebanese have weapons, except for the weapons of deterrence such as Zilzal missiles,” added Nasrallah.
“The March 14 camp is saying that the presence of arms prevents the rise of the state, but the state did not exist even before the creation of Hizbullah. Who prevented the rise of the state?” he said.
Nasrallah noted that sectarianism is the first real reason preventing the rise of the state, adding that Hizbullah “would benefit the most from the rise of a real state in Lebanon.”
He reassured that Lebanon cannot be ruled by one sect, warning that “whoever thinks that a certain sect must rule the country would be dragging the country into destruction.” “I hereby declare that the Shiite sect in Lebanon does not want to be a ruling sect or a leading sect,” added Nasrallah.
Turning to the Syrian crisis, Hizbullah’s chief said “the solution in Syria is to end the fighting and resort to dialogue without preconditions.”
Commenting on Sunday’s deadly attack on an Egyptian army outpost in Sinai near the border with Israel, Nasrallah extended condolences to the Egyptian army and officers.
“This incident would benefit Israel the most. According to preliminary assessment, one can say that it is a suspicious incident,” he said.
“All Muslim sects do not accept the approach of slaughtering and killing over differences with the other. This is among the biggest threats our societies are facing and I say there are two threats: Israel and the Takfiri, murderer mind,” he added.
In Sunday's attack, 35 gunmen in Bedouin clothing opened fire on the troops before crossing into Israel in an armored vehicle, Egyptian officials said. Israel said five gunmen were killed on its side.
Source: Naharnet
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