Supporters of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hold flags during an election rally in Sur on Monday. (Credit: Aziz Taher/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a speech Monday about next Sunday’s parliamentary elections accused the American mediator for the Lebanese-Israeli maritime border negotiations, Amos Hochstein, of being “dishonest and compromised and supportive towards Israel.”
Here’s what we know:
• Speaking via a video link broadcast to election rallies in Sour and Nabatieh, Nasrallah addressed the Lebanese authorities and said that “negotiating with Hochstein would not lead to any good outcome.” According to Israeli media outlets, Hochstein was born and raised in Israel to American parents and served in the Israeli army.
• Nasrallah also said that exploiting offshore hydrocarbon reserves that Lebanon is expected to have “is the only way to its salvation from its economic crisis” and claimed doing so would “generate hundreds of billions of dollars for Lebanon.” Since 2019, Lebanon has been mired in an unprecedented economic crisis.
• During an interview with journalist and podcaster Jad Ghosn in March, former Director General of the Finance Ministry Alan Biffani ,who has done a study on Lebanon's hydrocarbon reserves, said that in the best case scenario, Lebanon’s gas reserves would be worth around $1.5 billion or $2 billion per year.
• During his speech, Nasrallah addressed his supporters, saying “whoever wants to defend Lebanon should go vote on May 15 and practice a political July war” — a reference to the war between Lebanon and Israel that took place in July 2006.
• Hezbollah’s head also accused his rival parties of “making the subject of Hezbollah’s weapons the main topic of their political campaigns although the polls show that most people care about the economic crisis and their living conditions.”