Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah Saturday slammed President Michel Sleiman over recent comments criticizing Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria and hinted his party could boycott National Dialogue called for by the head of state.
“We call for an early presidential election if that is an option so that we can launch a new phase in Lebanon and then we can join [National] Dialogue [sessions] and discuss a national defense strategy and mutual cooperation,” Nasrallah said during a televised speech.
“I do not want to announce the party’s stance with regard to the National Dialogue sessions but this atmosphere [of attacks on the resistance] will certainly affect our decision,” he said.
Sleiman, whose six-year term in office ends May 25, has repeatedly criticized Hezbollah over its military role in Syria. In a February speech, he described the party’s “people, resistance, army” formula as “wooden.” Hezbollah responded by describing the equation as “golden.”
“Gold will remain gold and if anyone thinks otherwise, this will not make any difference to the fact of the matter,” Nasrallah said.
“In Lebanon there is gold and wood. Wood is for the coffins of occupation [Israeli] soldiers,” he said.
Despite being dropped from the new government’s ministerial statement, Nasrallah praised the formula, saying it had been advantageous for Lebanon at many levels.
