BEIRUT (Rantburg News Service):  Hizbullah's deputy secretary-general says he expects President Emile Lahoud to remain in office until the last day of his current mandate, and maybe until Doomsday, despite the best efforts of the populace to evict him. In an interview with the Arab daily Ad-Diyar published Saturday, Sheikh Naim Qassem insisted that anyone who wants to undertake change must first provide justification, ideas, mechanisms, a crowbar, and enough evidence to persuade other parties who don't want to be persuaded. "The fact that Emile was installed as a puppet president by the Syrians doesn't count," he said, stressing that any alternative candidate could only assume the reins of power in 20 months. "We like Syrians. We think it's fine that they choose our president."
He added that the recent clash between Lahoud and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in Khartoum was all Siniora's fault, and that it had not not orchestrated by MP Saad Hariri. He added that he pitied MP Walid Jumblatt and accused him of being influenced by the United States. "Far better," he added, "for him to be influenced by a powerful, successful regime closer to home, like... ummm... Syria."
In another interview published Saturday, pro-Hizbullah MP Hassan Fadlallah agreed with Qassem's prediction that the president would complete his mandate because there is no agreement on any alternative candidate so far. "Most people agree they don't want Emile, of course," he stated, "but so far we've managed to keep the pot stirred enough so that there's no one single candidate to replace him. As long as everyone's at each other's throats, he'll be fine. I'll admit, for a while there I thought he'd be out on his ear by the end of March, but if we can keep this up, he'll finish out his term. He'll be ineffectual, and he'll always be one step from being bounced, and he'll be a national embarrassment, but who knows? Something might turn up. This is Lebanon, where the politix are so convoluted you sometimes find yourself voting against yourself."
Commenting on the Shebaa Farms issue, Fadlallah argued that demarcating the border in the area would not be possible until the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from them and a resumption of ties with Syria. "How can we possibly determine if it's ours or Syria's when they're sitting on it? Sure, the Syrians have said it's not theirs, but how do we know that? Far better to keep Hizbollah in the south, with as many guns as they can carry, firing the occasional missile or artillery shell into Israel. That's the only way we can ensure peace in the region."
In comments to the central New Agency, Hizbullah's commander in South Lebanon said the party had no qualms about creating a problem for the U.S. and its political plans in the Middle East: "On the contrary," Sheikh Nabil Qaouk said, "this honors us. What are we here for, if not to create problems? With no problems, there's no justification for our existence, so the more problems the better."
His comments came in response to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's claim this week that Hizbullah was Lebanon's "biggest problem." Qaouk added that U.S. interference in Lebanon was hampering national unity and consensus. He also expressed gratitude at Syria's support of Lebanon's right to liberate its territories and resist to Israeli aggression and adoration of the sublime leadership of the noble Bashir Assad, calling the man a saint.
Meanwhile, Lahoud met Friday with his only friends outside of Hizbollah, the head of Parliament's Popular Bloc in Zahle, Elie Skaff, former Minister Suleiman Franjieh, former Minister Talal Arslan and former MP Emile Lahoud Junior, to plot a comeback. |
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MP Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party demanded that the head of the Popular Bloc MP Elie Skaff provide evidence that he did not sell land to Iran. "It is a rare, even abnormal, condition for a country to invade the property of another state in order to carry out its expanded projects," said PSP spokesman Rami Rayess in a statement published by the daily An Nahar on Sunday.