BEIRUT (Dispatches) – A top official from the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement says the United States cannot impose its will on Lebanon to elect a new president, as politicians have failed for the 11th time to name a successor to former President Michel Aoun.
“The only issue that matters to Washington is to secure the interests and goals of the Tel Aviv regime,” Vice President of the Executive Council of Hezbollah Sheikh Ali Damoush said at a ceremony in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut.
“Even though the U.S. has slapped sanctions against Lebanon, obstructs financial aid to the country in some way, abuses its privilege of veto power and employs mercenaries to sow seeds of sedition and provoke crises in Lebanon, it cannot impose its demands on the Arab nation and do whatever it wishes,” he said.
“Washington mistakenly thinks it can impose its will on Lebanon and install its favorable candidate as the new president if it intensifies pressures on the country and foments internal strife,” Sheikh Damoush added.
“It would be insane to pin hopes on foreign countries, particularly the United States, in order to work out a feasible solution to Lebanon’s crisis. Such a mechanism would not be in the best interests of the country at all, as Washington is not concerned with the Lebanese nation’s prosperity and does not want the next Lebanese president to be strong, brave and patriotic,” the top Hezbollah official said.
Furthermore, a senior Lebanese lawmaker warned that the enemies are seeking to pick a president who would implement their policies and push ahead with their policy of confronting the Hezbollah resistance movement.
Mohammad Raad, head of Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc – the political wing of Hezbollah – in the Lebanese parliament, said the enemies’ attempts to drive a wedge between Hezbollah and the Lebanese nation have dismally failed.
“We have not brought the country to a shutdown. Our country is suffering from a state of paralysis because of the individuals and parties that are plundering its assets, looting its banks, obstructing viable policies and encouraging sanctions. They prevent electricity from reaching the Lebanese nation and do not allow foreign aid to get to ordinary people,” Raad said.
He said Lebanon’s economic crisis cannot be entirely blamed on previous governments and their wrong policies, and it could also be tied to Americans’ habit of being at loggerheads with Hezbollah and their relentless attempts to undercut the resistance movement.
“The reason is that Hezbollah is the biggest obstacle to projects of normalization with the Israeli regime,” he said. “Enemies fell back on a campaign of maximum economic and financial pressures after they suffered a humiliating defeat at the end of Israel’s 33-day war on Lebanon back in the summer of 2006.”
“Enemies are frantically trying to hold the resistance group responsible for the currency devaluation and the country’s plummeting credit scores,” the senior Lebanese legislator added.
Lebanon’s presidency has seen stalemate several times since the 1975-1990 civil war. The country has also had only a caretaker government since May 2022.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Elias Bou Saab called on pro-West politicians and political factions in the country to drop the notion that Western governments can break the country’s presidential deadlock.
“American officials have informed us that they do not have a candidate to be elected as Lebanon’s next president. U.S. officials have stated that they would not listen to those who would approach them to complain about their rivals or settle political scores,” he said.