Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah struck a controversial note on Friday evening, calling last year’s May 7 events a "glorious day" in the Resistance's history.
 
At a graduation of Hezbollah students in Roueiss, Nasrallah said that “the May 7 events safeguarded Lebanon’s institutions, and forced all Lebanese parties to go back to the roundtable dialogue, which led to the election of President Michel Sleiman.”
 
“I tell the Lebanese, Sunnis and Shia in particular, that the May 7 events put an end to sedition in Beirut,” Nasrallah said. “The majority aims to create a rift between Sunni and Shia as an excuse for foreign troops to enter Lebanon to end civil war.”
 
“We do not want the Lebanese to forget the May 7 events,” Nasrallah continued, “Because we do not want the foolish decisions made by the cabinet on May 5 to be repeated. The main weapons used by the Resistance during the 2006 July War were Hezbollah’s network, which was attacked on May 5 by the cabinet’s decision. ”

He continued to reflect on May 7 by saying “residents of Bekaa and Akkar were told to fight their people and the Resistance, but they came to the wrong battlefield. International parties wanted the May 7 events to create a rift between the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Resistance, but they were later convinced that the patriotic army will never fight us.

That’s why they deprived the army of military assistance.”

“Hezbollah did not exploit its powers, especially after the liberation of occupied territories in 2000,” he said, adding “The Lebanese Resistance is more civilized than the French Resistance.”
 
About the upcoming elections, he said “I tell those who doubt the opposition’s ability to manage the country, those who reject partnership if the opposition wins the upcoming parliamentary elections: If we seize the majority, we will not beg you to be our partners in the governing process. And I tell those who bet on the opposition’s failure during elections: The Resistance that defeated Israel can govern a country that is 100 times larger than Lebanon.”

Nasrallah made several comments in defense of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, saying that accusations that Hezbollah want a three-way division of shares between Shia, Sunni, and Christian are from majority politicians who “want to frighten and target the Christians within the opposition” by claiming that opposition Christian leaders “forged an alliance with Hezbollah and will reduce the power of Christians in Lebanon. Aoun did not accept concessions in the Jezzine district: Why would he support the decrease of Christian rights and shares?”

“Those who accuse Hezbollah of supporting three-way division of shares support federalism,” said Nasrallah. “We need a deep and serious national dialogue on the elimination of sectarianism or else this issue will always be dangerous.”

“It is a shame that the Lebanese Judiciary detains Israeli spies for a few months and senior officers for three years,” he said, in a reference to the four generals who had been released after being held on suspicion of involvement in the death of former PM Rafik Hariri. “We call for a state that ensures justice in the governing process. I tell other parties: The Lebanese Judiciary is acting under your guardianship in a way that is similar to the phase of Syrian guardianship.”

Nasrallah added that Hezbollah “supports partnership and cooperation within the cabinet. The current cabinet is a national unity government and its performance is not a failure. There is no contradiction between the existence of a powerful state and a strong Resistance.”

“The opposition, not Hezbollah, called for the obstructing third vote within the cabinet,” he said, as he explained Hezbollah’s policy aims, including “an electoral law based on proportionality,” the implementation of administrative decentralization “as stated in the Taif Accord,” and the reactivation of a Planning Ministry.

“Hezbollah did not call to end political sectarianism in its electoral program,” he added, “But the Taif Accord stated the formation of a national committee on this issue. We call for forming this committee to discuss the matter. The end of political sectarianism needs a consensus, or else it will have negative and dangerous repercussions. We disagree with other Lebanese parties about the Resistance, its weapons and its defense strategy. We discussed these issue and talks are still underway.”
 
He also discussed criticisms about Hezbollah’s weapons supplies, saying, “A powerful state is able to protect its people and its land. A powerful state is able to tell resistant people to go back to their studies and leave the defense process to state institutions. We aim to establish a powerful state that protects its territory and people without any foreign security services or UNIFIL, which are useless.”

-NOW Staff