Reports: Nasrallah Pressed Bassil on Extraordinary Session, Proportional Law

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah played a key role in persuading Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil to accept an electoral law fully based on proportional representation and to seek President Michel Aoun's signature on a decree opening an extraordinary legislative session with the aim of appeasing Speaker Nabih Berri, media reports said.

“Hizbullah was decisive in telling Minister Jebran Bassil that it would not accept parliamentary vacuum even for a single minute and that it was necessary to issue a decree opening an extraordinary legislative session prior to the three-party meeting” in Baabda between Aoun, Berri and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, informed parliamentary sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in remarks published Sunday.

“Berri was informed of the outcome of the Nasrallah-Bassil meeting and he attended the presidential iftar banquet accordingly after realizing that the opening of the session was not a problem anymore,” the sources added.

Other parliamentary sources meanwhile told Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah that Berri was “very relieved” by Nasrallah's stance.

“Berri considered Nasrallah's remarks a heavy-caliber message to the FPM that it should not go very far in its new alliances, whether with the Lebanese Forces or al-Mustaqbal Movement, especially that the new presidential tenure cannot afford to lose Hizbullah's support amid the critical circumstances that Lebanon and the region are going through,” the sources added.