Saturday, June 13, 2009

Hezbollah & allies to boycott government without "Third + Veto"


Reuters, here

" ... Suleiman Franjieh said that without veto power it would be better to stay in opposition than to join the new government, which is almost certain to be led by a rival U.S.-backed coalition that won a parliamentary election Sunday.

"Let them rule and take the whole government, but without us as bystanders in it... We will not hold things up. But we will refuse to join the government," added Franjieh, whose Marada movement won three of parliament's 128 seats in the election....

Hariri, who has firm Saudi backing, declined to discuss the issue in a Reuters interview Friday, though he has previously described the existing power-sharing arrangement as unsuccessful. 

"The talk we are hearing from the others is very nice and positive, but it does not include the third," Franjieh said, speaking in his home village of Bnechei in northern Lebanon....

Franjieh, a friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said Lebanon's political stability would be determined by guarantees from the majority coalition over issues including the role of Hezbollah's guerrilla force. "If they violate fundamental issues that concern the weapons of the resistance, ... it will definitely lead to a state of instability," said Franjieh, a former interior minister."

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