Future Movement MP says impossible Hezbollah cannot control clan

Future Movement MP Nuhad Mashnouq dismissed Monday Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s claim that his party cannot control a local clan that went on an abduction spree of Syrians, particularly as the clan resides in the party’s stronghold.   “It is not possible that Hezbollah is capable of threatening Israel but incapable of controlling a clan that lives in an area under Hezbollah’s control,” Mashnuq told Voice of Lebanon Radio Station. “Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah's words that the situation spun out of his party's control go against the facts on the ground and constitute a direct threat to the Lebanese,” he added. In a speech Friday marking Jerusalem Day, Nasrallah said, “What happened in the past two days is out of the control of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.” The Meqdad clan kidnapped over 20 Syrians and a Turkish national Wednesday in retaliation for the abduction of Hasan al-Meqdad in Damascus by Syrian rebels. A group by the name of “Al-Mokhtar al-Thaqafi Brigades,” believed to be affiliated with the families of the 11 kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in Syria, also kidnapped several Syrians in reaction to reports that the pilgrims were killed in an air strike in Syria. Mashnuq also reiterated his party’s accusations against Prime Minister Najib Mikati, saying the latter should resign since “he is hostage to a certain political logic. “The current government was formed to sabotage the political situation and support the Syrian regime and it wants to put Lebanon on a path of confrontation with the Arabs and the West,” the parliamentarian said. From dailystar