Saturday 13 June 2009

Hezbollah & allies to boycott government without "Third + Veto"

Link


Reuters, here

" ... Suleiman Franjieh said that without veto power it would be better to stay in opposition than to join the new government, which is almost certain to be led by a rival U.S.-backed coalition that won a parliamentary election Sunday.

"Let them rule and take the whole government, but without us as bystanders in it... We will not hold things up. But we will refuse to join the government," added Franjieh, whose Marada movement won three of parliament's 128 seats in the election....

Hariri, who has firm Saudi backing, declined to discuss the issue in a Reuters interview Friday, though he has previously described the existing power-sharing arrangement as unsuccessful.

"The talk we are hearing from the others is very nice and positive, but it does not include the third," Franjieh said, speaking in his home village of Bnechei in northern Lebanon....

Franjieh, a friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said Lebanon's political stability would be determined by guarantees from the majority coalition over issues including the role of Hezbollah's guerrilla force. "If they violate fundamental issues that concern the weapons of the resistance, ... it will definitely lead to a state of instability," said Franjieh, a former interior minister."


Posted by G, Z, & or B at 10:29 AM

EU's Solana holds first high-level meeting with Hezbollah


Deutsche-Welle, here

"I am happy to be in Lebanon, and I am performing an analysis of the latest developments with all the officials of your country, especially the new phase that kicked off after the elections," Solana said after meeting with Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun in Beirut on Friday....

Solana also met with Hezbollah MP Hajj Hassan which was the first such high-level contact between an EU official and Hezbollah. The Shiite group has been blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Washington but not by the European Union...."
Posted by G, Z, & or B at 10:24 AM

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