The Lebanese government has come under fire from Hizbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah over recent anti-Hizbollah statements made by Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Parliament during the budget debate, reported the Daily Star newspaper on Saturday.
Speaking on Friday at a graduation ceremony for Koran-reading students in Beirut’s southern suburb of Ghobeiri, Nasrallah said that “Hizbollah MPs called for development funds to be allocated, as promised, to the Baalbek-Hermel areas in the Bekaa. They did not raise the issue of the Shabaa Farms or the cabinet’s attitude with regard to the issue of the anti-Israeli resistance, political reforms, civil peace or the presence of Syrian forces on Lebanese soil or any such issue.”
Nasrallah was replying to Hariri’s threat to “open the file of highjacked long-distance telephone calls” if Hizbollah MPs kept exerting pressure on him.
Political sources indicate that Hizbollah may be directly involved in an illegal long-distance telephone call scandal.
Hariri promised to launch, before the end of the year, an extensive development program benefiting several rural areas.
Nasrallah said that when Hizbollah MPs called for development funds for the Baalbek-Hermel area, they were not asking to be compensated for the losses suffered by Hizbollah in fighting Israel.
“They were just doing their job for their electorate,” he said – Albawaba.com
