Hussein DakroubNizar Hassan| The Daily Star

BEIRUT: A direct dialogue between the Future Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement is the key to resolving the crisis over the Cabinet’s decision-making mechanism, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Friday.

Nasrallah also said that neither Hezbollah nor FPM chief MP Michel Aoun wants to topple the government or obstruct its work, warning that the overthrow of the Cabinet would plunge the country into full-blown vacuum.

“I call for a serious dialogue between the FPM and the Future Movement because the real problem lies here,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech on the occasion of the Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, held annually on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.

“Betting on time is wrong. So is the betting on isolation of the FPM from its allies,” he said.

Declaring that Hezbollah would not abandon its alliance with Aoun and the FPM, Nasrallah said: “The best way is for a bilateral dialogue to begin between the Future Movement and the FPM, after which all of us will join it to strengthen it and legitimize it in the Cabinet and Parliament.”

“We have a chance till after the Eid [al-Fitr] to figure it out,” he said.

“The Future Movement has made promises to Gen. Aoun, so they should go ahead and discuss them.”

The latest Cabinet crisis erupted last month over the contentious issue of appointing senior military and security officers.

The FPM’s ministers have insisted that they will not allow the Cabinet to discuss any topic before it addresses appointments of new security chiefs, including the appointment of Aoun’s son-in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, the head of the Army Commando Regiment, as Army commander.

The crisis later expanded to a new dispute over a mechanism to govern the government’s decision-making and exercise executive powers in the absence of a president.

The long-simmering tension between the FPM and Prime Minister Tammam Salam flared during a stormy Cabinet session Thursday, erupting into a shouting match between the premier and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Aoun’s son-in-law. The dispute began when Bassil accused Salam of violating the Constitution and infringing on the Maronite president’s powers.

After the heated argument, FPM supporters took to the streets in a protest that turned violent when they scuffled with Lebanese soldiers who prevented them from marching toward the Grand Serail.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah and the FPM have no interest in disrupting or overthrowing the national unity Cabinet, calling on Parliament to resume its work.

“Neither Gen. Aoun nor any of his allies want to disrupt the Cabinet or topple it,” Nasrallah said. “We all know that if this Cabinet is toppled for whatever reason, the whole country will enter a vacuum. With this regional situation, this is a very dangerous step.”

Nasrallah voiced his backing for Aoun’s demands to respect unanimous consent as a condition for any decision in the Cabinet until a president is elected.

“We are not giving up on any of our allies, and particularly not on Gen. Aoun and the FPM,” Nasrallah said. “Our options are open. Don’t assume that we won’t do some things, everything is possible. I am not threatening, but this is how we behave with our allies and everyone knows it.”

Commenting on Thursday’s FPM street protests, Nasrallah said Hezbollah was not invited to join.

“It is not in the interest of Gen. Michel Aoun’s popular movement that Hezbollah participates in demonstrations,” he said, explaining that rival parties would use it to link the movement to regional issues, and thus discredit Aoun’s “rightful demands.” “It is not wise for us to participate,” he said. “And second, Aoun did not invite us to do so, because this man understands the nature and size of Hezbollah’s responsibilities during this phase.”

However, Nasrallah voiced reservations about the larger demands that Aoun has recently raised, such as a re-examination of the political system and the establishment of federalism. “Such matters require discussion between us as allies,” he said.

Unlike Aoun’s bloc, which has rejected holding Parliament sessions amid the yearlong presidential vacuum, Nasrallah called for opening an extraordinary parliamentary session to act on a host of draft laws.

“The Lebanese are destined to live together in partnership. Their only way to protect their country and its security, stability, institutions and real partnership is dialogue and meeting together and not betting on regional and international changes,” he said.

Amid the current turmoil in the region, Nasrallah said, “Lebanon needs more than at any time before to preserve its civil peace, political stability, its constitutional institutions and its sectarian coexistence with no room for isolation, cancellation or monopoly [of power].”

Referring to the 4-year-old civil war in Syria, he said if Syria was lost to Islamist rebels fighting to overthrow the government in Damascus, then the Palestinian cause would be lost too.

“The road to Jerusalem does not pass through Jounieh. We never said that,” Nasrallah said, invoking a saying attributed to late Palestine Liberation Organization official Salah Khalaf, also known as Abu Iyad.

“However, the road to Jerusalem passes through Qalamoun, Zabadani, Homs, Aleppo, Deraa, Hassakeh and Swaida, because if Syria is lost, Palestine is lost too.”

He said his party would always “stand by Syria” and he voiced support for the popular demands of the Syrian people for reform. “But we are not with the destruction of Syria, its army and its institutions.”

Nasrallah underlined the impossibility of a military solution from either side in Syria, expressing conviction that all Syrians want an end to the war.

His speech came as Hezbollah and the Syrian army Friday engaged in heavy clashes with rebels in the resort town of Zabadani near the Lebanese border.

The allied forces launched the offensive to retake the rebel-held town earlier this month, hoping to bolster their control of land routes between Lebanon and Syria.

The capture of the town would add to Hezbollah’s recent victories in the Qalamoun mountain range since launching an offensive, backed by the Syrian army, in early May.