Hassan Fadlallah challenges the government over the dissolution of the Rissalat association

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah expressed hope that the Lebanese government would not make the “mistake” of dissolving the “Lebanese Association for the Arts – Rissalat,” a decision requested earlier the same day by Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar and placed on the agenda of the Council of Ministers scheduled for Monday in Baabda. The lawmaker even went so far as to declare: “No one can take anything from us out of defiance.”

On Sep. 25, during the projection of portraits of former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his short-lived successor Hashem Safieddine on the Raouche Rock, the NGO affiliated with the party had only received authorization to hold a commemorative gathering, without image projection. Despite this restriction imposed by the Beirut governor, on the order of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, the iconic Beirut site was lit up with the portraits of the two leaders killed by the Israeli army a year earlier.

In an interview with the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar channel, Hassan Fadlallah insisted that he considers himself committed to the association and that in Parliament he “represents” it, before declaring that the dissolution decision “they can eat it and drink its water.”

The MP accused Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of “undermining the authority of the state through the way he acts,” stressing that his party had not agreed to any “commitment regarding the illumination of the landmark site.” Taking a jab at Hezbollah, the head of government had declared Thursday that “the biggest loser from what happened in Raouche is the credibility of the organizer and of those who support it, because they failed to honor their commitments. Restoring the authority of the state requires enforcing the law and holding accountable those who did not respect their commitments.” Following the incident, Nawaf Salam requested the arrest of those responsible, and the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Jamal Hajjar, issued search warrants against two individuals who had refused to appear. Two others were interrogated Thursday, and three more people were summoned.

Hassan Fadlallah défie le gouvernement sur la dissolution de l’association Rissalat