Nasrallah: The situation in Lebanon calls for a partnership government, and we are not opposed to representing the movement

The Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Friday that the current situation in Lebanon requires forming a government of national partnership with the widest possible representation, at a time when the political forces have not yet agreed on the shape of the next government that protesters want from outside the current political class.

Nasrallah added in his speech that Hezbollah insists on the participation of the Free Patriotic Movement in the government, as well as on the presence of the Future Movement in it, and he said that he has no problem with the participation of representatives of the popular movement in it.

He added that the national responsibility requires everyone to make concessions to save the country, warning that the situation cannot tolerate a vacuum.

The Secretary-General of Hezbollah considered that the situation in Lebanon has worsened after the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his government in late October, noting that the country is going through the worst economic and financial crisis in its history.

In the same speech, Nasrallah criticized the American dealings with the demonstrations that have been going on in Lebanon for nearly two months, and accused Washington of trying to use the demonstrations, use them for their interests and serve their project.

He also said that the US administration views the demonstrations in Lebanon and other countries as pressure tools on Iran.

Nasrallah's statements come in light of the continuing divergence in the positions of the political forces on the shape of the next government, days before the date of parliamentary consultations to name a new prime minister after the withdrawal of both former Minister Muhammad Safadi and businessman Samir al-Khatib.

On Thursday, the president of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gibran Bassil, said that his party and Lebanon’s strong parliamentary bloc would not participate in the next government if Saad Hariri stuck to its leadership and if Hezbollah and Amal insisted that it be a political and technical government led by Hariri.

In turn, Mustafa Alloush, the political bureau member of the Future Movement, said that the greatest possibility would be to assign Saad Hariri to form the new government.

Protests
Dozens of activists in the popular movement in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon organized a protest to demand the resignation of Governor Ramzi Nahra.

Activists chanted slogans demanding the governor's dismissal and accountability for corruption charges, they said. This was accompanied by Twitter calls for a civil disobedience campaign through non-payment of taxes and utility bills.

The Lebanese army had reopened the highway this morning in the Jal El Dib area, north of the capital Beirut, after protesters had closed it for some time, demanding the formation of a national rescue government that would work to address the economic crisis and combat corruption in the country.

US sanctions
On the other hand, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on three people accused of money laundering for the benefit of the Lebanese Hezbollah.

The Treasury Department statement on Friday confirmed that two Lebanese and a person with the citizenship of the Democratic Republic of the Congo contributed to raising funds and laundering them for the benefit of the party.

US sanctions included Saleh Asi, Nazim Saeed Ahmed and Tony Saab, on charges of financing Hezbollah.

The Treasury said that the information received by it "confirms the participation of Hezbollah and its partners in illegal economic activity that gives priority to it at the expense of the interests of the Lebanese people."

The statement stressed that the United States supports the demand of the Lebanese people to "end corruption and finance terrorism that thrives in corrupt environments," as the statement described.