Description:
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, asserted in a recent interview on Al-Manar TV, that 77 out of the 128 MPs in Lebanon’s new Parliament support the strategic path of military resistance to Israel.
Source: Al Manar TV via Kalam Siyasi (YouTube)
Date: May 24, 2022
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Transcript:
Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General:
If I want to go back to the former formal division (of the Lebanese Parliament), we have 62 (MPs of Hezbollah and its allies), (and this is) the formal (division), I reiterate, I do not call for a (Parliamentary) majority, and I don’t want (to speak about a parliamentary) majority, nor will we carry on (our discussion) based on (exploring the possibility of a parliamentary) majority. I only wish to read out numbers so that the image would become clear for the people.
There are the ‘independents’ – before I speak about the independents, we have 62 (MPs). There’s something called ‘remnants of the March 14 (coalition)’, who are composed of the Lebanese Forces, the Phalanges, the Progressive Socialist Party, and the Future Movement – the Future Movement took a certain position. (However,) at that time, those were –
Host:
– (you mean back) in 2018…
Qassem:
(Indeed,) in 2018, these (remnants of the March 14 coalition) were 47 (MPs) –
Host:
– and today?
Qassem:
Now they are 36 (MPs). So, we have ‘March 14 remnants’ – although there is no connection between them, yet if we formally divided them, they are 36 (MPs). We have the independents with 16 (MPs), (and) these 16 independents are divided into two segments; a segment which we call ‘moderate’ and another which we call ‘negative’ –
Host:
– the moderates (are ones) which you have open (dialogue/communication) with? –
Qassem:
– The moderate ones are those with whom we have ties. The moderate ones are those who are with the path of strategic resistance (against Israel), yet they (chose to) take a certain position on their own.
Host:
What’s the percentage of the moderate (segment) among those 16 (independent MPs)?
Qassem:
The percentage of moderates out of those 16 (independent MPs) is 8. There are 8 ‘moderate’ (MPs) and 8 ‘negative’ (MPs). Actually, I didn’t want to mention names, but (I will) for the sake of credibility. What would you say about Michel al-Mur in Matn (District)? He’s among the moderates. What about Ghassan Skaf in Western Bekaa? He (too) is among the moderates. (So is) Mohammad Suleiman in Akkar. Abdul Rahman al-Bizri in Sidon is among the moderates. I will not mention the others, I’m just giving examples to show what ‘moderate’ means, so that public opinion would understand that we are not only throwing (random) numbers. Now we have: the independent (MPs) that are two segments, 8 moderate (MPs) and 8 negative (MPs).
Host:
– ‘negative’ in what sense, your eminence?
Qassem:
‘Negative’ (refers to the MPs who) are against the resistance –
Host:
– Completely (against the resistance)? –
Qassem:
(Indeed,) completely against the resistance –
Host:
– And you have (had) open communication channels with them, but you haven’t reached?…
Qassem:
– They are completely against the resistance and the majority probably have ties with the US Embassy and the Saudi Embassy, and their (political path) is settled.
Moving to the fourth segments, now we have four groups (in the new Lebanese Parliament): (1) ‘Hezbollah and its allies’; 2) the ‘March 14 remnants’; ‘the independents’; and 4) ‘the NGOs’. 14 (MPs) of ‘the NGOs’ have won (seats in the parliament). And these NGOs are divided into two segments: 7 moderate (MPs) and 7 (MPs who are) followers of the (US) embassy. That’s a surprise (isn’t it)! Allow me to give examples, as people may be wondering how NGOs may include moderate (MPs), and yes there are moderates (among them).
Host:
Such as?
Qassem:
What would we say about Charbel Massaad in Jezzine? He’s among the moderates. What about Rami Fanj in Tripoli? He (too) is among the moderates. Elias Jradi in Southern (Lebanon) is among the moderates, and (so are) other (MPs from the NGOs).
So, if we want to make a calculation, who is with the resistance and who is against the resistance – I’m not speaking about internal (calculations, because with regards to internal (political matters), all (the blocs) are separate blocs, we no longer have one bloc, not in a formal manner, nor in a non-formal manner. (Therefore), we would have those who are with the path of resistance as (military) resistance (against Israel) but have (other separate) calculations with regards to internal (affairs), (all of such people become) 62 + 8 + 7 = 77 MPs.
If we want to speak about those who are against the path of the resistance, the March 14 remnants are 36, the negative (section) of the independents includes 8, the negative (section) of the NGOs includes 7, (added together), they are equal to 51 (MPs).
(So in total), 51 + 77 = 128 (i.e. the total number of MPs in the Lebanese Parliament). If we would categorize the Parliamentary based on who is with the resistance to Israel and who is against the resistance to Israel, we would have 77 (MPs) with the resistance to Israel.
Our correspondent informs me that this is a MAJOR translation with regards to Lebanon and the region, and we are really the first outlet that we know to make this news available in the English language.
Congratulations, this is what winning hearts & minds looks like. Keep pushing, plenty more firsts to come.
As someone who knows next to nothing about the politics of Lebanon, it occurs to me to wonder whether a merger of Lebanon with Syria would make sense. Lebanon has existed as a soveriegn nation only since 1943, and is one of the smallest in the world. Its people seem somewhat similar in ethnic and religious makeup to the Syrians, and perhaps they would do better as part of a bigger, better established state.
From a military point of view, surely it would be far better for the Lebanese and Syrians if Israel could no longer use Lebanese air space to launch attacks on Syria. And Syria could deploy some of its advanced Russian air defences to what is now Lebanon, providing far better integrated command and control.
Please tell me all the things that are wrong with this uninformed suggestion! (I can already see that Israel would not like it, but that doesn’t seem an insuperable obstacle).
Hello Tom,
A merger would be a great . It would solve a lot of problems. But of course the people have to agree to it. The other idea is a federation to which Lebanon Iran Iraq and Syria could belong to. This way everyone can still maintain nationalist identities
Syria was in Lebanon until recently, it had to leave after the assissination of Hariri. Sunnis and the christians especially demanded syrian troops leave Lebanon.
That’s another thing that surprises me. Christians seem to have been the most disruptive and murderous group in Lebanon! I know the long and bloody history of Christian expansion, but I didn’t expect it in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
I think there are Christians in Syria, but I have not heard of them causing trouble.
yup christians in Lebanon were exploited and made to commit crimes against palestinians
The gullible Christians don’t know their criminal history. The injection of criminal jewish tribe in the heart of the Arab land is the Christians’ policy of the West including Russia where can be found in the Bannerman Report written in 1907 by the Prime Minister of Britain, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. He wrote:
“There are people (the Arabs) who control spacious territories teeming with manifest and hidden resources. They dominate the intersections of world routes. Their lands were the cradles of human civilizations and religions. These people have one faith, one language, one history and the same aspirations. No natural barriers can isolate these people from one another … if, per chance, this nation were to be unified into one state, it would then take the fate of the world into its hands and would separate Europe from the rest of the world. Taking these considerations seriously, a foreign body should be planted in the heart of this nation to prevent the convergence of its wings in such a way that it could exhaust its powers in never-ending wars. It could also serve as a springboard for the West to gain its coveted objects.”
Then, a FOREIGN BODY(Israel) should be planted in the heart of Arab land to prevent the convergence of its WINGS in such a way that it could exhaust its powers in never-ending wars. Now, look around yourself and tell me do you see anything other than Bannerman vision? The criminal christian west injected the Jewish tribe into Palestinian’s land to put one against the other to grab their land and resources preventing unity. Russia like other western countries voted yes for the erection of Israel in the heart of Arab land and the first jewish immigrants to Palestine were RUSSIAN Jews during the criminal czar’ rule. That’s why Russia and Lavrov always repeated the stupid slogan of the west: “Israel has a right to defend itself”. crude statement removed … mod https://seenthis.net/messages/281419
“77 out of 128 MPs support resistance to Israel…”
Then unless I am mistaken as Lebanon is still in conflict with Israel and Israel regularly violates Lebanese airspace to commit war crimes in Syria, there are 51 Lebanese MP’s who are either traitors, cowards or bought.
I would say those 51 are all three,i remember when the same rats supported Israeli invasions of Lebanon time after time.
““77 out of 128 MPs support resistance to Israel…”
“Then unless I am mistaken as Lebanon is still in conflict with Israel and Israel regularly violates Lebanese airspace to commit war crimes in Syria, there are 51 Lebanese MP’s who are either traitors, cowards or bought.”
Thank you for your illustration of linear extrapolation predicated upon the non-existence of doubt – sometimes known as projection – which is a popular practice of the opponents.
In some organisations that is a statement posed at interview in various forms to investigate potential.
Never ceases to amaze me how many people would sell their Country to the Empire,the bottom line is if not for Hezbollah Lebanon would have been an Isaeli colony years ago.
The Empire maintains its power through massive bribery and physical and professional threats. You needn’t be amazed this is biz as usual and has been for some time. This is why the Empire is so upset with China because it is now in a position (if it wants) to do the same thing around this new multi-polar world. I think we’ll be seeing major geostrategic changes in the next few years despite the Empire’s attempt to stall the trends.
And how few countries – if any at all – enforce their laws against High Treason. Perhaps a clue that those governments do not rule in the interests of their people, but in the interests of certain foreign organisations.
The Lebanese Christians are so enamored of the French that I would be telling a lie if I said they fall to their knees to felicitate (not a spelling mistake) the French, they don’t. The Christians stand away from their countrymen and appease Europeans to gain entry into EU.
What a shit show ME politics are, especially the Lebonese. Israel AF flies unhindered, with complete air dominance. Israel bombs Lebanon and Syria at will. We all know why this is allowed, and it has to do with who controls the media.
Change must come.
77 against 51 which means there is still a major problem with unity in Lebanon, but the good story is that Hezbollah not was totally left in the cold despite hard efforts to destroy the resistance. I know its more complicated than that, but as overall conclusion.
Congratulations to Saker+ for always being on relevant hot topics in the world in a most competent way.
Also even Israeli newspaper haaretz is denouncing it now. When will the world act?
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/05/a-small-arrogant-violent-wicked-nation-and-a-jewish-mutation-haaretz-prints-denunciations-of-zionism-no-u-s-paper-would-run/