The President of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, in 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berry announced Tuesday that the government's resignation was out of the question," while a Hezbollah MP said he believed Nawaf Salam's cabinet would "not last until the next parliamentary elections."
"The government's resignation is out of the question. The severity of the exceptional circumstances Lebanon is experiencing requires all parties to demonstrate the highest level of responsibility and wisdom," the speaker of the house emphasized in an interview with the Lebanese daily al-Joumhouria.
The cabinet's project "will fail"
His comments come as the government faces criticism from Hezbollah for its decision last Tuesday and Thursday to disarm the group and other armed groups in Lebanon by the end of the year. The decision sparked fierce reactions throughout the past week from representatives and supporters of the Amal-Hezbollah duo, as well as angry protests in different regions of Lebanon.
Hezbollah MP Ihab Hamadeh stated that "what the government has done is an affront to the national pact," believing that "the people will bring it [the government] down and it will not last until the next parliamentary elections." He also stressed that "the resistance will not give up its weapons," stating that Salam's Cabinet initiative "will fail."
Hezbollah has already launched several attacks against the government's decision. The most recent came from the vice president of the party's political council, Mahmoud Qomati, who escalated his rhetoric Monday, emphasizing that it would be impossible to disarm the party "without blood being shed" and accusing the Cabinet of having "sold out" the country."
It is against this troubled backdrop that the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, is expected Wednesday in Lebanon.
