Despite being in control of its sovereign decisions, Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah is paving the way towards the displacement of the Lebanese state for his very own. This will occur by transforming Lebanon into a province of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
According to “Al-Akhbar” newspaper Nasrallah was quoted, during his most recent televised interview, asserting that: “Hezbollah insists that the crisis must be dealt with within the legal and legitimate frameworks, but if a time comes in which that is no longer the case, we reserve the right to use our own critical options. However, implementing them through the law will not be possible, we will resort to them in order to save the country and our people.”
He continues by saying: “We remain adamant up until now that the current situation must be addressed by the state, but that does not mean that we will abandon our responsibilities towards the people should the country reach real collapse.”
In my opinion, this was the most dangerous statement he made. What it translates to is that the Lebanese government, whose decisions are in the hand of Nasrallah, is no longer able to handle the situation. He is signaling that he is very close to dispensing with the services of the entire political class and their participation in government as a whole. It means that he will make the rescue decisions on his own. This conclusion is enforced by a number of indicators, which are as follows:
- Giving Hariri an ultimatum: Either a technocratic government that cannot make difficult decisions, or two other options:
- Reactivating Diab’s government, which is Nasrallah’s primary choice, as it is a docile tool firmly held in his hand. This cabinet also cannot take difficult decisions that Hezbollah do not dictate.
- A constitutional amendment that can remove him, yet that remains an unreasonable option that would cause serious concerns for Sunni’s and will be too time consuming.
- Nasrallah called for a total refusal of roadblocks (regardless of his opinion about the validity of that kind of protests), criticized the army and security forces (that merely observe the roadblocks instead of open them up), and threatened to take measures in clearing them up himself. All these are indicators of his intentions to increase control over the state, using force if necessary.
- A return to the proposition of importing fuel from Iran which is hindered by the Lebanese Law due to risk of American or Western sanctions. The economic solutions are available from the East (China, Russia, Iran, Iraq…). However, this demands an exclusivity of decision-making which Nasrallah can impose. Behind these statements, there is apprehension about an American-Western-Arab “influence” on the army, security institutions, and components of the rogue political class that might try, in certain circumstances, to evade submission to Hezbollah.
