Hezbollah chief calls for national unity

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has called for national unity ahead of the parliamentary consultations to elect Lebanon’s new prime minister.

Nasrallah referred to Monday and Tuesday’s parliamentary sessions to elect the new premier, saying that if the opposition candidate is elected as premier, he will form a national unity government.

“In the whole world, in the parliaments, we have parliamentary blocs, who announce their candidates. And we have other parliamentary blocs, who name other candidates,” Nasrallah said during a speech broadcast live on Press TV on Sunday.

“So, can we accuse these other parliamentary blocs of politically assassinating the other candidates in democracy?” he asked.

Nasrallah also asserted, “It is the right of the parliamentary blocs to reject a specific person regardless of the percentage of representation he has.”

“In democracy, nobody can impose on parliamentary blocs to name a specific candidate and to agree with him.”

Nasrallah also said that Lebanon is at a critical juncture, referring to the indictment prepared by the US-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Hariri and more than 20 other people were assassinated on February 14, 2005, when explosives equal to around 1,000 kilogram of TNT were detonated in downtown Beirut. The Washington-sponsored STL was set up two years later to probe the incident.

Nasrallah said on Sunday that the indictment aims to sow divisions in Lebanon and pressure Hezbollah into giving political concessions.

Saad Hariri recently said the opposition was “politically assassinating” him by rejecting his return as premier.

The head of the resistance movement said Hariri had no right to enforce his re-election, using the parliamentary majority, which represents his bloc.

“The post of prime minister is not a post of representation. It is a post of leadership, which needs certain qualifications,” the Hezbollah leader said.