BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Friday he expected positive results from his party’s ongoing dialogue with the Future Movement, stressing that the talks would also benefit the entire country.
He said an intra-Christian dialogue and an internal accord by rival factions were the key to the election of a new president, rejecting the argument that a regional or international deal was essential to break the 7-month-old presidential deadlock.
In a televised speech marking the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, Nasrallah lashed out at Islamist extremists, saying they had offended Islam and the Prophet more than Western cartoons mocking Islam.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s dialogue with the Future Movement launched last month under the sponsorship of Speaker Nabih Berri was serious from both sides and served the interests of the entire country.
“The dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement is heading in the required seriousness between the two parties and serves the country’s interests,” he said, speaking via a video link to hundreds of supporters gathered at Mahdi school in the southern Beirut suburb of Hadath. “Dialogue leaves positive effects on the sectarian climate in Lebanon.”
Hezbollah’s strained ties with the Future Movement, exacerbated by the conflict in Syria, have heightened sectarian tensions and sometimes put the country on edge.
Referring to the two rounds of talks between senior officials from Hezbollah and the Future Movement held at Berri’s Ain al-Tineh residence, Nasrallah said: “Based on the two dialogue sessions, I can speak about positive elements to reach results. We and all those concerned with the dialogue are realistic and did not raise its ceiling. We are aware it is difficult to reach a comprehensive agreement.”
“There are some who cannot tolerate seeing Muslims and Christians sitting together to talk,” Nasrallah said. “There are those who are seeking a Muslim-Christian war, aided by idiot takfiri factions.”
Officials from both sides say the Future-Hezbollah dialogue is mainly aimed at easing Sunni-Shiite tensions, facilitating the election of a president and energizing idle state institutions.“We did not say that the dialogue will resolve the defense strategy issue, the weapons of the resistance, or its role in Syria, while Lebanon lives in a region hit by the severest storms,” Nasrallah said. “That’s why the dialogue ceiling was the preservation of the country.”
He called on March 8 and March 14 factions to reach an internal deal to choose a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year term ended on May 25, as Parliament has since been unable due to a lack of quorum to elect a new president.
Nasrallah voiced support for attempts to arrange a meeting between the two rival Maronite leaders, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea. He said intra-Christian talks were the key to breaking the presidential impasse, rejecting the notion that Lebanon needed a regional or international consensus to elect a president.
In his speech, Nasrallah said extremist religious groups following a “takfiri” ideology have offended Islam and the Prophet Mohammad more than the Western cartoons lampooning the religion.
“The behavior of the takfiri groups that claim to follow Islam has distorted Islam, the Quran and the Muslim nation more than Islam’s enemies … who insulted the Prophet in films …or drew cartoons of the Prophet,” he said. “Takfiris are the biggest threat to Islam as a religion and as a message.”
His remarks came two days after an Islamist attack on a French satirical magazine that had printed cartoons mocking the Prophet. Twelve people were killed in the attack by jihadi-linked gunmen.
Nasrallah did not directly mention the Paris attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, but he said Islamic extremists who behead and slaughter people – a reference to the ISIS’ rampages in Iraq and Syria – have done more harm to Islam than anyone else in history.
Nasrallah vowed to defeat takfiri factions in the same way Hezbollah forced Israel to end its 18-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000. “As we have defeated the Israelis, we will defeat the terrorist, takfiri groups and anyone who attacks Lebanon,” he said.