Kataeb party leader MP Samy Gemayel lashed out at Hezbollah on Tuesday, accusing the party of “holding the presidential election hostage” and using it as a bargaining chip to fulfill its demands before breaking the deadlock.
“It’s clear that Hezbollah is refusing to meet the Lebanese halfway,” Gemayel said at a press conference following a meeting with the ambassadors of Qatar and Egypt, two countries that form part of the Group of Five — alongside Saudi Arabia, France, and the United States. Doha has taken it upon itself to help break the almost year-long presidential deadlock. It has launched its own initiative, multiplying moves at national and international levels, aiming to find a way out of the crisis.
“We withdrew our candidate Michel Moawad and supported the candidacy of Jihad Azour (former Minister of Finance and Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund, editor’s note) as a gesture of goodwill to put an end to the presidential vacancy. Hezbollah, for its part, has not taken any steps to elect a President of the Republic,” Gemayel said, pointing out that the pro-Iranian party is insisting on the candidacy of Marada leader Sleiman Frangieh.
“We are therefore faced with a choice: either resist or submit,” hammered Gemayel. “We either refuse the logic of the diktat, or we submit to the candidate that Hezbollah is trying to impose. If Hezbollah really cares about the country, as it claims, it should withdraw its candidate and propose another one. We can then choose between two candidates, or we will move toward a third choice.”
For Gemayel, no initiative will succeed if one party does not play the entente card. “It’s the (Hezbollah-led) obstructionist axis that refuses to find solutions,” he insisted.
Retorting to Hezbollah’s demand for guarantees to keep its weapons, Gemayel said, “It is the Lebanese who need guarantees for preserving the Republic, the State, and the institutions.” He added, “We want guarantees in the formation of governments so that Hezbollah does not give priority to the interests of its allies.”
Gemayel also reacted to Hezbollah’s executive council member Sheikh Nabil Kaouk’s comment on Sunday that “factions that advocate confrontation have become a heavy burden.”
Addressing Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, he asked him to explain what he meant by “burden.” “Is it a threat of assassination and a new May 7 aggression?” he asked, referring to Hezbollah’s invasion of West Beirut and part of the Druze mountains on May 7, 2008.
