Berri Warns Hizbullah's Isolation Leads to Lebanon's Destruction
Speaker Nabih Berri has warned that preventing Hizbullah from participating in the new government would be dangerous, saying the exclusion would be considered directed at him.
“Those calling for Hizbullah's isolation are pushing towards Lebanon’s destruction,” Berri told As Safir newspaper on Tuesday.
“Let it be clear that the cabinet cannot be formed without Hizbullah,” he said. “I consider the rejection to give it portfolios as directed at me personally.”
Berri stressed that he has informed Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam that the current delicate stage requires an all-embracing government.
“If I reject Hizbullah's exclusion, I also reject the exclusion of (FPM chief Michel) Aoun or al-Mustaqbal movement or any other party,” he said.
Conditions and counter-conditions set by the March 8 and March 14 alliances have so far prevented Salam from putting together a government.
March 8 wants a national unity cabinet that includes major political figures and is asking for the representation of its parties based on their parliamentary weight. March 14 on the other hand is calling for keeping Hizbullah away from it over the party's participation in the war in Syria alongside President Bashar Assad's troops against rebels seeking to topple him.
Berri reiterated that he disagreed with Aoun on several local issues but agreed with him on their support for the resistance and the army-people-resistance formula.
“There is no longer such thing as veto power even if Aoun gets five, six or seven ministers” in the new cabinet, Berri said.
“So there won't be any possibility for (the March 8 alliance) to have veto power or to act as a single ministerial bloc,” he added.
Berri said last week that the alliance, which brings together Hizbullah, the FPM and his Amal movement, was over and that Aoun would negotiate with Salam separately from the two Shiite parties.
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