04 May 2013

BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s recent speech on the crisis in Syria has dashed hopes for any possible dialogue between the party and the Future Movement, let alone talks among the rival factions, a Future lawmaker said Friday.

“Nasrallah’s speech has derailed the possibility of dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah,” Beirut Future MP Ammar Houri told The Daily Star.

“With his speech, Nasrallah has announced his withdrawal from the Baabda Declaration and things have become more complicated for any dialogue to start,” he said.

In a televised speech Tuesday, Nasrallah vowed to defend the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and said Syria’s allies, Iran, Russia and “resistance groups” could intervene militarily to prevent the collapse of the Assad regime.

Acknowledging his party’s role in the 2-year-old civil war in Syria, Nasrallah said his fighters would continue to defend Lebanese living in a string of Syrian border villages in rural Qusair from rebel attacks, arguing that the Lebanese state was unable to fulfill the task itself. However, Hezbollah’s rivals maintain say the party is fighting alongside Assad’s forces against the rebels.

Houri argued that Hezbollah’s actions have always run against inter-Lebanese dialogue. “Following Nasrallah’s speech, the situation has become more difficult. Dialogue is now at a standstill and Hezbollah is to blame for this,” he said.

Unless Hezbollah backs off from its declared participation in the fighting in Syria, Houri said, “there would be no dialogue with the Future Movement or any other group.”

Houri said Nasrallah’s speech has even weakened the chances of holding a new round of National Dialogue under President Michel Sleiman to defuse political and sectarian tensions as a result of the turmoil in neighboring Syria.

Baalbek-Hermel MP Kamel Rifai, from Hezbollah’s 12-member bloc, said no direct dialogue had been held between the party and the Future Movement.

“There have been indirect contacts and messages between the two sides to reconcile the conflicting viewpoints on domestic and regional issues,” Rifai told The Daily Star.

Admitting wide differences with the Future Movement on internal issues and the crisis in Syria, he said: “Hezbollah is ready to attend any National Dialogue session to discuss all divisive issues, including a defense strategy to protect Lebanon.”

Responding to Nasrallah’s speech, Future Movement leader and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri warned that the Hezbollah chief was seeking to drag Lebanon into the Syrian fire.

Other March 14 politicians warned that Nasrallah’s statement amounted to “a declaration of war” and was a recipe for sectarian strife in Lebanon.

They also said that Nasrallah’s remarks dealt a heavy blow to the government’s disassociation policy on Syria as well as the “Baabda Declaration,” which calls for distancing Lebanon from regional and international conflicts. Hezbollah was one of the signatories to the “Baabda Declaration” during a National Dialogue session at Baabda Palace in June 2011.

Nasrallah’s speech followed reports of renewed contacts between Hezbollah and the Future Movement aimed at ending the strain between them. The revival of contacts between the two sides came after the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government on March 22.

Despite years of strain with Hezbollah, Hariri said recently that his hand was extended toward the party.

“Hezbollah is a core component in the country, just as the Future Movement is,” Hariri told reporters after meeting Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai at a hotel in Paris last month.

Nasrallah’s speech is also expected to cast gloom over attempts to open channels of communications between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia, which wields great influence in Lebanon. Saudi Arabia is now emerging as a key player in Lebanon, and many analysts believe Riyadh is trying to fill the vacuum left by Syria which had played the role of the main power broker here for nearly three decades.

Prior to Nasrallah’s speech, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri said his country maintains good ties with all Lebanese parties, including Hezbollah and MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement.

“There is no rift between Saudi Arabia and any Lebanese party,” Asiri said. He added in a newspaper interview that Saudi Arabia was open for dialogue with Hezbollah. “The points of convergence are more that the points of divergence [with Hezbollah].”

Copyright The Daily Star 2013.