Jaafarite Mufti Ahmad Kabalan. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Jaafarite Mufti Ahmad Qabalan, who is close to Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, said that “destructive ideas and revenge campaigns have no place in the settlement of the presidential elections," according to the state-run National News Agency.
Lebanon has been without a president since the end of former president Michel Aoun's term in Oct. 2022. Over a dozen parliamentary electoral sessions have failed to elect a president, with the last one in June 2023. After refraining from calling for new elections for more than a year, Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri finally scheduled a new session for Jan. 9.
This election is part of the cease-fire agreement that came into force on Wednesday morning between Hezbollah and Israel, who had been fighting each other since Oct. 8, 2023 in a conflict that became a full-scale war towards the end of the summer.
In his statement, Qabalan addressed "those who flounder with their political positions in the most delicate national circumstances" without specifying who he was referring to exactly.
"Igniting internal division puts the country in the heart of disasters that affect the core of Lebanon ... insisting on playing positions that serve Israel is beyond the national need ... you are supposed to learn from the patriotism of the former leader of the [Progressive Socialist Party] Walid Jumblatt, [caretaker Prime Minister] Najib Mikati, [leader of the Future Movement] Saad Hariri and Michel Aoun," he said.
The Jaafarite Mufi stressed the importance of strengthening the Islamic-Christian partnership, protecting civil peace and "not falling into the trap of foreign projects."
"There is no greater crime against the Lebanese than serving the Zionist project or clashing with the resistance," he said, adding that the resistance was a "red line." The word resistance is commonly used by pro-Hezbollah figures to refer to the group.
He said that only the Lebanese people, army, resistance and the national partnership protect Lebanon. He also warned of a civil war, saying that Lebanon's situation "does not tolerate adventurism and any major error puts us in the unknown."
Finally, he said that Berri has an "exceptional ability to pass a presidential settlement worthy of the Islamic-Christian partnership that summarizes the authentic values of the national family in Lebanon.”