BEIRUT: Lebanon's political officials are free to comment on regional events as they please, but that does not mean they reflect official government positions, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said, distancing himself from the Hezbollah chief's recent remarks on Bahrain.
“Whatever the secretary general of Hezbollah Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah declares is his own business,” Salam said in an interview with Qatari daily Al-Watan published Thursday.
“As a government, we would announce our position openly and officially, but political forces represented in the Cabinet have their own political platforms which they use to air their views on many sensitive issues in Lebanon’s space of free speech and democracy,” Salam said.
“As the prime minister of Lebanon I will never hesitate to voice official stances bluntly and openly and abide by them,” he said.
“But I am not in a position to monitor and sanction what political forces in the country say or to deter them and stop them from speaking out,” he added.
In a televised speech two weeks ago, Nasrallah denounced Bahrain's crackdown on its protest movement and Dec. 28 arrest of its main opposition leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the al-Wefaq Islamic Society.
Nasrallah’s accusations against the island kingdom outraged Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, some of which had summoned Lebanese diplomats to lodge an official complaint.
Commenting on Israel’s deadly attack on Syria’s Golan Heights town of Quneitra in which six Hezbollah fighters were killed Sunday, Salam said he hoped there will be no repercussions on Lebanon in such a difficult situation.
“We will continue to seek the implementation of the policy of disassociating Lebanon from the events in Syria. This policy was endorsed in the government’s policy statement but there are still discrepancies between theory and application on the ground,” Salam said.
While Hezbollah has remained tightlipped on possible response to the deadly attack, the Lebanese government is seeking to avert any negative repercussions from a Hezbollah retaliation that would impact the internal situation in Lebanon and the position of the government as a whole.
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