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Nasrallah slams 'foreign vetoes' in presidential file, says dialogue the 'only way'

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday condemned what he called "foreign vetoes and interference" in Lebanon’s presidential file, stressing that Hezbollah is keen on finalizing the presidential vote and that "dialogue is the only way."

“We are very keen on finalizing the domestic junctures and dialogue is the only way,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech commemorating the late Hezbollah-affiliated Shiite scholar Sheikh Ali Kourani.

“We are not complicating things at all and the proposed steps are normal,” Nasrallah added, referring to the presidential dialogue that Speaker Nabih Berri has proposed and that is facing rejection from the Lebanese Forces-led opposition.

“We do not want to employ what's happening in the south in the domestic affairs,” Nasrallah emphasized, reiterating that “the battle in the south and in Gaza has nothing to do with the presidential file.”

He also noted that the “domestic disputes and foreign vetoes” had blocked the presidential vote for a year prior to October 7, 2023.

As for Hezbollah’s decision to activate the southern front against Israel, Nasrallah said: “For weeks we have heard that all Lebanese people do not want this battle, but this is untrue. Aren't all the martyrs who have fallen Lebanese? Aren't the thousands of fighters on the front Lebanese?”

“We are the biggest party in Lebanon but we have never used the rhetoric that we are the majority of the Lebanese people,” Nasrallah said.

“Had Lebanon not entered the war, it would have suffered major consequences in the future should Israel win the war,” Nasrallah pointed out.

He added: “This (Lebanese) front is an assistance front and part of the battle that is creating the fate of Lebanon, Palestine and the region.”

Source: Naharnet


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