BEIRUT: Future Movement officials seem to discard any possibility of direct dialogue with Hezbollah in the near future, as they considers the dispute over the latter’s involvement in Syria as a central matter that cannot be skipped over.
The pan Arab newspaper Al-Hayat wrote Sunday that sources from the Future Movement criticized Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah for neglecting the importance of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s return to Lebanon in his last speech Friday.
Al-Hayat said that neutral observers had noticed that none of Hezbollah’s officials had called Hariri to congratulate him for returning, “as dictated by the protocols regardless of the disagreements.”
The reportedly “leading” officials in the Future also condemned Nasrallah’s negligence over the $1 billion Saudi donation to the Lebanese Army and Internal Security Forces. They said that such lack of appreciation by the Shiite party’s head toward the major Sunni moderate party is likely to make launching any direct dialogue more difficult.
“The step of conducting a direct dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement has not yet matured,” the sources said, “neither from Hezbollah’s nor from Hariri’s side.”
Hariri’s main concern is Hezbollah’s participation in Syria, the sources added, and a dialogue with the party depends on any changes to this controversial involvement.
“Starting from his eagerness to break the environment of Sunni-Shiite tension, Hariri has deepened the dialogue with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri ... due to his central position in the Shiite sect,” they added.
However, a similar dialogue with Hezbollah is not possible as long as Iran insists on “fighting in the Syrian war through Lebanon.” If Hezbollah’s withdrawal from Syria depends on an Iranian decision, the Future officials said: “This should be treated as a military intervention in Lebanese affairs.”
The state should take responsibility and refuse to accept Iran’s use of Lebanese soil to participate in a regional war, by controlling the borders preventing Hezbollah’s militants from crossing to Syria the sources added.
They repeated Hariri’s view that Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syria fighting has brought terrorist groups to Lebanon, saying the party’s armed activities resulted in the Arsal clashes between the Army and militants.
“Say we accept that ISIS and Nusra’s attack on Lebanon is not wholly due to Hezbollah’s participation in Syria,” the sources said, “but at least what can be said is that the party’s participation in the Syrian fighting has contributed by a minimum of 50 percent to brining this phenomenon to Lebanon.”
Many Future MPs Saturday condemned Nasrallah’s speech, stressing that Hezbollah’s armed existence in Syria was not protecting Lebanon, but furthering its exposure to terrorist extremism.
“Contradicting Nasrallah’s claim that his fighting in Syria protects Lebanon, Arsal’s incident confirmed that Hezbollah’s participation in the Syrian war has not protected Lebanon, and that extremism creates more extremism,” Future MP Nabil de Freij said in a radio interview.
“The people, Army and resistance trilogy has led to the May 7 [clashes] and if we had agreed on a defense strategy since 2006 we wouldn’t have reached neither the participation in Syria nor the Arsal events.”
Amin Wehbi, another Future bloc member, also denounced Nasrallah’s speech as “arrogant” saying the party’s existence in Syria pushed the Lebanese to experience the Syrian people’s suffering.
“Supporting the Lebanese Army should come through withdrawing all Lebanese from Syria, and agreeing on a Lebanese state, in order to finally reduce the extremism rate,” Wehbi said to Future TV.
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