BEIRUT: Former premier Fouad Siniora denounced over the weekend Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s latest speech, describing it as impetuous and dangerous. Speaking during a seminar at the AmericanUniversity of Beirut to commemorate the assassination of former Minister Mohammad Chatah, Siniora slammed Nasrallah’s comments with respect to changing the rules of engagement with Israel.
Nasrallah delivered his speech Friday during a ceremony to honor six Hezbollah fighters killed during the Jan. 18, Israeli airstrike in Syria’s Qunaitra, in which he announced that the rules of engagement between the resistance and Israel had ended.
“Following the Qunaitra operation and the response in the Shebaa Farms, I want to be clear: We in the Islamic Resistance [Hezbollah] in Lebanon are no longer concerned with any such thing as the rules of engagement. We don’t recognize the rules of engagement that have ended,” Nasrallah said in his speech.
Hezbollah retaliated to the Qunaitra attack Wednesday – two days prior to the speech – in an ambush operation that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded seven in the occupied Shebaa Farms.
Siniora said Nasrallah’s remarks were “unilateral and hasty and eliminate the will of the Lebanese people who are committed to [U.N] Resolution 1701,” which ended the July 2006 War.
Speaker Nabih Berri slammed those criticizing Nasrallah’s speech, saying that the Hezbollah attack on the Israeli military convoy in Shebaa did not breach U.N. Resolution 1701 and was “a clean operation carried out on occupied Lebanese territory.
Ahmad Hariri, Future Movement’s secretary-general, said Saturday that the Lebanese were united against the idea of being dragged into a new war with Israel, “amid living through the ravages of Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria.”
Hariri also denounced the heavy gunfire that accompanied Nasrallah’s speech in areas where Hezbollah enjoys broad support, saying it was a danger to citizens.
As the fifth Hezbollah-Future Movement dialogue session is set to take place this week, Tripoli MP Mohammad Kabbara questioned Sunday the rationale behind Nasrallah’s move.
He echoed Hariri remarks with respect to celebratory gunfire, asking: “Is this how Hezbollah respects the security plan, which is a key theme in its dialogue with Future?”
Kabbara said he believes that Nasrallah’s speech only aimed to lift the spirits of Hezbollah supporters, as the party’s military wing was suffering great “losses” in its military operations in Syria.
Other politicians hailed Hezbollah’s response to Israel’s strike in Qunaitra and Nasrallah’s speech.
Among those singing Nasrallah’s praises was Sheikh Mohammad Yazbek, representative of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Lebanon and a high-ranking Hezbollah official.
“The speech imposed an equation that will protect Lebanon from future violations by the Israeli enemy,” Yazbek said during a ceremony marking the one-week anniversary of the death of 1st Lt. Ahmad Mahmoud Tabikh, who was killed with seven others during the Jan. 23 clashes in Ras Baalbek’s Tallet al-Hamra sparked by an ISIS ambush.
Yazbek’s comments were directed at “those annoyed by the resistance’s response in the Shebaa Farms.”
He said Hezbollah had retaliated in a manner that would restore the dignity of the Lebanese.
Israel has been defeated, said Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan, describing Hezbollah’s response as “heroic.”
“The conflict with the Zionist enemy is once again a priority to people in the Arab world,” Hasan added, speaking during a ceremony to commemorate the death of Army recruit Mujtaba Amhaz in Ras Baalbek.
Information Minister Ramzi Joreige said that fears of escalation following Hezbollah’s retaliatory attack had eased.
He told Radio Liban Libre Saturday that Hezbollah gave considerable thought to the manner in which its responded to the Qunaitra attack.