Four days before the parliamentary electoral session that is taking place on Wednesday, Hezbollah stepped up its campaign to bash the support of a broad parliamentary coalition (Opposition, Kataeb, Free Patriotic Movement, Progressive Socialist Party, and independent MPs) for Jihad Azour’s candidacy for the head of state.
Criticism, accusations, and even threats increased in the speeches of its representatives on Friday and Saturday. These revealed, once again, the extent of the pro-Iranian formation’s discontent and nervousness in the face of the parliamentary coalition in favor of Mr. Azour’s candidacy. Above all, they highlighted the Hezb’s conception of very undemocratic values, tailored solely to its strategic interests.
In an obvious bid to show its weight on a national scale, this party, which has just lost its only Christian ally, the FMP, led by Gebran Bassil, chose to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the death of Imam Khomeini in the town of Jbeil, north of Beirut. Needless to say, its presence in this city is not as strong as in the southern suburbs or in certain parts of the Bekaa and southern Lebanon, where its political adversaries, the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb, and now the CPL, undoubtedly carry more weight. This choice thus conceals a political message, especially since nothing brings the city of Jbeil closer to Imam Khomeini’s Iran.
In his speech in front of a crowd of supporters on Friday evening, Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, a member of Hezbollah’s Central Council, promised to “bar the way to discord” by criticizing the choice of Jihad Azour. “Recent political alignments on the presidential issue confirm our national apprehensions. These alignments have betrayed hidden agendas. Our national responsibility requires us to consolidate the internal scene and block the way to discord,” he threatened, without, of course, explaining why the choice of Jihad Azour for the presidency would lead to discord.
Nevertheless, this threat was accompanied by a new call for “unconditional dialogue”. This call “is serious and does not represent a political or media maneuver,” added Sheikh Qaouk. In his view, “Lebanon needs national convergences that can save it from collapse, protect it from discord, and, at the same time, meet the interests of the country and not those of individuals.”
Addressing the parliamentary coalition in favor of Mr. Azour’s election, he “advised them not to make wrong choices and not to get carried away by excessive enthusiasm, which would lead them to more lost bets.”
In much the same spirit, the Caretaker Minister of Culture, Mohammad Mortada, denounced in a speech delivered in Tyre that “political practices that have become instruments of division risk leading to general national ruin”.
After paying a strong tribute to the “Resistance,” he sharply criticized “those who refuse dialogue, who engage in all kinds of provocations, who tailor national values to their own interests, and whose provocative behavior, actions, and speeches dislocate the country”.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan, speaking from Baalbek, considered that Jihad Azour’s candidacy “contributes to complicating the election of a new president,” while criticizing the political convergence around this candidacy.
