BEIRUT: The parliamentary Future Bloc Tuesday accused Hezbollah of using MP Michel Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement to paralyze state institutions, prolong the presidential vacuum, now in its 15th month, and obstruct the government’s work.

It also strongly refuted Hezbollah’s allegations that the Future Movement was launching a campaign to isolate and break Aoun.

“Real partnership in the national equation cannot be attained through the continued incitement against the Future Movement by holding it responsible for a crisis which Hezbollah has caused,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

“Hezbollah’s media outlets have invented a notion that there is one faction [the Future Movement] that wants to isolate and break Gen. Aoun. Hezbollah, which fabricated the claim, used it for incitement against the Future Movement.”

Referring to last week’s speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah in which he said the Lebanese people are “partners in fear and injustice,” and that the state is the guarantee, the bloc said: “These words are good but they do not conform with the party’s stances and actions [as manifested] in its constant departure from real partnership and national unanimity by continuing to ignore the state and impose the logic of the ministate that contradicts with the principle of national partnership.”

The bloc also slammed Hezbollah’s involvement in the civil war in Syria and the party’s brief takeover of west Beirut on May 7, 2008. “All these action constitute a blatant example of divisions and rekindling strife among the Lebanese,” the statement said. “The Future Movement was not and will never be a tool to break any of the partners in the nation. Therefore, Hezbollah or those revolving in its orbit will not succeed in tarnishing the Future Movement’s shining image.”

In his televised speech last Friday, Nasrallah emphasized that Aoun is a “compulsory” pathway for the presidential election and the resumption of Cabinet’s work. Responding to Nasrallah’s remarks over the presidential crisis, the Future bloc said: “Sayyed Nasrallah and the party are using Gen. Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement to obstruct the people’s affairs, prolong the presidential vacuum by thwarting [Parliament] sessions to elect a president and disrupt the Cabinet’s work.”

The Future bloc and its March 14 allies have accused Aoun’s bloc, Hezbollah’s bloc and its March 8 allies of thwarting a quorum in Parliament to elect a president by constantly boycotting the sessions. Parliament last week failed in 27 consecutive sessions since April last year to elect a president over a lack of quorum.

Referring to political rifts within the Cabinet that prompted Prime Minister Tammam Salam not to call for a session this week, the bloc warned of dire social consequences entailed by the government paralysis. “The continued Cabinet disruption is preventing the government from tackling and approving financial matters, including the approval of reserve funds [to pay] public employees’ salaries, thus threatening serious social consequences,” it said.

The bloc called for revitalizing state institutions by electing a president as soon as possible to revive the Cabinet’s work and reopen Parliament to approve essential draft laws.

Speaker Nabih Berri said there have been no political contacts with him to resume the Cabinet sessions, stalled by the thorny issues of the decision-making process and security and military appointments, two key demands by the FPM’s ministers.

Berri, according to visitors at his Ain al-Tineh residence, said that Health Minister Wael Abu Faour, who met him Tuesday as an envoy from MP Walid Jumblatt, discussed with him how to revive the government’s work.

“For my part, my ministers are attending [the Cabinet sessions]. Nothing more, nothing less,” Berri was quoting as telling Abu Faour.

In the absence of the president, Berri said the Cabinet combined represents the president’s position in view of its importance. Similarly, he said Parliament is the mother of powers and has the power to legislate in everything. Berri denied as “baseless” reports that he was no longer paying attention to Parliament legislation by opening an extraordinary legislative session.

Asked whether he plans to launch a new initiative to break the political deadlock, Berri said he had previously tried but without success. “I have said, and I again repeat, let the people calm and fear God over the country’s fate in order to be able to tackle the prevailing situation.”

Meanwhile, Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc vowed not to allow any Cabinet decision before its demands for real partnership in the government’s decision-making are met. “Nobody shall accuse us of disruption. We are disrupting the disruption. We will not allow any [Cabinet] decision to pass before a real partnership mechanism is established,” former Minister Salim Jreissati told reporters, reading out the bloc’s statement after its weekly meeting. “We are with any solution that conforms with the National Pact, the Constitution and laws of the Lebanese nation.”