BEIRUT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th September, 2020) Hezbollah, the Shia Islamist political party and militant group based in Lebanon, does not intend to give up its seat in the government and will keep the country's "resistance bloc" in the political game, the movement's leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday.
"We must be in the government to protect the resistance so that the government does not repeat a dangerous decision similar to that of May 5, 2008, that could lead to a confrontation between the army and the resistance. We cannot abandon the government, fearing for what is left of Lebanon," Nasrallah said in a televised address.
The Lebanese Shiite leader called France's attempt to hand the process of forming a new government over to four ex-prime ministers "strange," as they headed the cabinet for the past 15 years, during which the situation in Lebanon got worse.
"If they [France] want to accuse us of disrupting the government formation, it is their right. We thwarted an attempt to steer Lebanon from bad to worse ... I invite [French] President Emmanuel Macron to find out who really thwarted the first stage of [Lebanon's] revival process," Nasrallah added.
At the same time, the secretary-general of the Shiite movement noted that Hezbollah welcomed the French initiative and appreciated the role of Macron, calling for dialogue, understanding and respect.
Mustafa Adib, who was appointed Lebanon's prime minister in late August, has not yet been able to present a new cabinet, despite the conditions set by Macron, under which the new government was to be formed in Lebanon by September 14.
If this condition is met, Macron pledged to hold a conference on aid to Lebanon in Paris in October. The process of forming the government has become more difficult after the United States imposed new unilateral sanctions against two former Lebanese ministers, whom the US administration has accused of being connected with Hezbollah.
The Hassan Diab government stepped down shortly after a devastating explosion in the Beirut port on August 4 killed at least 190 people and injured over 5,000 others.
