A screen displays a televised speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT – Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Monday that his party “is committed to the Mar Mikhael agreement and is willing to improve it in line with the national interest.” Nasrallah’s comments came in response to remarks by Free Patriotic Movement head Gebran Bassil on Sunday, in which he contended the agreement, reached between his party and Hezbollah in 2006, is in need of improvement.
Here’s what we know:
• Speaking to mark the second anniversary of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Nasrallah added that the issues raised by Bassil “need to be discussed.”
• On Sunday, Bassil said amid tensions between his party and Hezbollah that he is not ready to end the Mar Mikhael agreement established between the two in 2006, but does want to improve it. Bassil also said that the alliance between Hezbollah and fellow Shiite party the Amal Movement has impacted the Mar Mikhael agreement.
• Earlier Monday, responding to Bassil’s comments, Amal MP and former minister Ali Hassan Khalil said, “We are proud of the national partnership with Hezbollah, which bore the responsibility of defending Lebanon and defending the establishment of the state and its institutions.” On Dec. 10, the head of the investigation into the 2020 port blast explosion, Judge Tarek Bitar, demanded the immediate arrest of Khalil, who has refused to appear before the judge in relation to the probe. Both Hezbollah and Amal oppose Bitar’s leadership of the investigation, which they say he has “politicized.”
• Relations between the FPM and Hezbollah have been experiencing increasing tensions in recent months. Bassil accused the “shiite duo” — i.e. Amal and Hezbollah — of being behind the Constitutional Council’s move not to take any decision on an FPM-led appeal that sought to overturn amendments to the electoral law. The council’s non-decision effectively left the amendments in place, meaning that expatriate voters will cast their ballots in the 2022 parliamentary elections in Lebanon's existing 15 constituencies, rather than in a specialized, six-seat 16th constituency as preferred by Bassil and the FPM.
• Lebanon's cabinet has not met since Oct. 12 following a dispute over Bitar’s role in the port blast probe. Ministers affiliated with Amal and Hezbollah call for the removal of the judge, while Prime Minister Najib Mikati and President Michel Aoun, who founded the FPM, oppose interfering in judicial proceedings. As a result, tensions have mounted between the two parties involved in the Mar Mikhael agreement.