Sheikh Qassem: Visits by Lebanese officials to Damascus help put relations with Syria back on the right track

2-12-2008

Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said that President Michel Suleiman had been able to revive the "special" relations between Lebanon and Syria that were called for in the Taif Agreement.
After meeting with a delegation from Ouzaii on Tuesday, Qassem saluted Suleiman, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud and Army Commander Jean Kahwaji, and said that their visits to Syria helped put Lebanese-Syrian relations on a track that was in both the countries' interest.

"We have the right to be proud of restoring it [Lebanese-Syrian relations] and making every effort to speed it up, deepen it and make sure it succeeds," he said, adding that the success of Lebanese-Syrian relations was beneficial for both countries.

Qassem called for calm in politics and in the press. "We tell those media heroes that their heroism will only instigate sectarian strife; because even...[with] the petrodollar it will not change the expected results of elections," Qassem said somewhat sardonically.

He also said that Hizbullah and the opposition insisted on holding the 2009 parliamentary elections on time, and, to that end, would put every effort into preparing the appropriate atmosphere. Qassem was dismissive of the notion that the elections would be affected by "illusionary headiness" [in reference to March 14] and said there was no need to invent and market problems for the majority. He called for calm in politics and in the press.

Qassem said that Hizbullah and the opposition had an electoral program of building a Lebanese resistance state, which entailed a strong state capable of ruling in accordance with the law and against terrorism. Such a program would not be aggressive toward opponents and was not connected to US interests or the ""Israeli" project," he said, adding that it would be built on calm, cooperation and economic and social approaches that ended corruption rather than fueled sectarianism.

Qassem said that the electoral performance of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun made him the foremost representative of the Christians in Lebanon and advanced the community's broader role. He said that Aoun had worked on improving Lebanon's relations with its friends with his past visit to Iran and coming visit to Syria.