BEIRUT: The Future Movement and Hezbollah agreed Monday to take “practical steps” aimed at bolstering stability as the country faces mounting threats from Syria-based jihadis holed up on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal near the border with Syria.
The two rival influential parties also pledged full support for the Army and security forces in their battle against terrorism, in a clear allusion to ISIS and Nusra Front militants who have frequently attacked military outposts on Lebanon’s eastern frontier with Syria.
“The participants appreciated the positive development of the dialogue and its subsequent impact on the public opinion. They have agreed on some practical steps that will boost the climate of stability,” according to a statement issued after a fourth round of talks between senior officials from the Future Movement and Hezbollah held at Speaker Nabih Berri’s residence in Ain al-Tineh.
The terse statement did not say what steps the two parties, whose strained ties have heightened sectarian and political tensions and sometimes put the country on edge, would take to ease tensions and consolidate stability.
Referring to the Army’s open battle against terrorism, the statement said: “The participants reaffirmed the firm stance in backing the Army and security forces with all means to confront terrorism and protect Lebanon.”
Defusing Sunni-Shiite tensions is the main item on the dialogue agenda, which, according to officials from both sides, also includes finding a mechanism to allow the election of a president, boosting efforts to combat terrorism, promoting a new electoral law and energizing stagnant state institutions.
The statement did not say whether the two sides discussed the 8-month-old presidential deadlock during the meeting that lasted nearly four hours.
The meeting was held against the backdrop of last week’s fierce clashes between the Army and ISIS militants on the outskirts of the village of Ras Baalbek near Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Eight soldiers, including an officer, were killed and 22 others were wounded in the clashes, which flared up after ISIS militants attacked and briefly overran an Army post in Tallet al-Hamra on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek.
It also came more than a week after an Israeli helicopter airstrike targeted a Hezbollah convoy in Syria’s Golan Heights on Jan. 18, killing six Hezbollah fighters, including the son of slain military commander Imad Mughniyeh, and a senior Iranian general.As in past sessions, Future was represented by Nader Hariri, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s chief of staff, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk and Future MP Samir Jisr.
Hezbollah was represented by Hussein Khalil, a political aide to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan and MP Hasan Fadlallah. Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a political aide to Berri, also attended.
The Future-Hezbollah dialogue has won support from rival politicians, as well as from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, the U.S. and the European Union.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, who belongs to the Future Movement, accused Hezbollah of exploiting the Lebanese Army’s relentless fight against jihadi militants to revive the tripartite equation of “The Army, people and resistance,” which bestowed legitimacy to the party’s arsenal to fight Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.
“We would like to remind Hezbollah that there is no going back in time, and that the party’s attempt to revive the wooden [intractable] equation of ‘the Army, people and resistance,’ which had been dropped from the government’s policy statement, is an attempt to outsmart us,” Rifi said.
The justice minister accused Hezbollah of hiding behind Lebanese military and security institutions, which, he said, were “paying the price of the party’s policy of adventures and subservience to Iranian influence that have led to involving Lebanon in the Syrian events.”
Rifi was responding to Hezbollah’s deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem, who stressed in a speech Sunday that combating rampant jihadi terrorism from Syria necessitated the combined efforts of the Army, Hezbollah’s armed resistance and backing of the Lebanese.
Rifi renewed Future’s call on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from Syria. “The nation is going through a crisis which requires full support for the Army and security institutions to enable them to protect Lebanon,” he said.
“As for the illegitimate weapons, which you are placing at the disposal of Iran’s regional agenda, it is utterly rejected,” Rifi said, adding: “Only the Army and the legitimate security forces can protect the nation and the citizens.”
Future MP Ammar Houri said there was nothing new in the presidential election issue, which, he said, hinged on the outcome of regional developments “after Hezbollah had linked it to Iran.”
“But we are trying through the dialogue [with Hezbollah] to find a hole in the issue, by trying to convince the party to make this issue a Lebanese option. But unfortunately, so far there has been nothing new in this respect,” Houri told Akhbar al-Yom news agency.
