Hezbollah belittles Hariri election comments

Hezbollah criticized over the weekend comments by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in which he said there could be no discussion of a new electoral law in the shadow of the resistance group’s weapons, and added that a strong, unified and stable Syria also strengthened Lebanon. “Are we to conclude that he who opposes dialogue between the Lebanese in the presence of the weapons opposes the elections taking place in the presence of the weapons? Or is it just the case of talk for talk's sake that is being put forward to provoke and incite, particularly as the elections bazaar has begun?” asked Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad Sunday, in an apparent response to comments by Hariri published in a local daily earlier in the day. In a wide-ranging interview with Al-Mustaqbal, Hariri, commenting on a draft electoral law based on proportional representation, said: “No talk or discussion of proportional representation in the presence of arms. This should be well understood by the president and prime minister.” Hariri said Syria was intent on imposing a law aimed at crippling his Future Movement. “It is no longer a secret that orders from the head of the regime in Syria [Syrian President Bashar Assad] have been issued to leaders and officials in the Lebanese government to impose an electoral law aimed at breaking the Future Movement, its allies and everyone who stands in the face of the killing machine inside Syria and its tutelage over Lebanon,” Hariri said. He held both Prime Minister Najib Mikati and President Michel Sleiman responsible for any endeavor that would “smuggle” such a law into Lebanon’s political system. Raad, the head of the Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, also said Lebanon needed a strong, unified and stable Syria. “The unity, strength and stability of Syria acts to strengthen Lebanon’s unity and stability,” Raad said. On the subject of Israel, Raad said the resistance group was always prepared for confrontation but said the Jewish state was reticent to launch any kind of operation under the present circumstances. “We no longer wait for the enemy to attack. We estimate that at this time the enemy has a million considerations before it proceeds with any stupid move because it knows that its fate will be at stake and that there would be a change to the face of the region and the equations that dictate it in favor of the people of this [Arab and Islamic] nation, its spirit of resistance and its resistance youth.”