24-01-2009

Suleiman Franjieh, the head of the Zgharta-based Marada Movement, slammed Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanese MP Saad Hariri for conspiring to put an end to the role of Christians in Lebanon. He also accused "every person who supports the centrist bloc" of conspiracy.
In an interview with the Hizbullah-run Al-Manar television channel Friday night, Franjieh called on President Michel Suleiman to "reject and fight" the idea of a centrist parliamentary bloc.

The former interior minister also commented on Metn MP Michel al-Murr's comments earlier this week. "Where was Murr in the era of Lahoud and where is he now? Isn't it General Aoun who made him a MP in the last elections and today he wants to be neutral?" he asked.

Franjieh said (US backed) March 14 invested the concept of the centralist bloc due to the fear they would lose in the June 7 parliamentary elections.
"The spiritual fathers of the centralist bloc are certain embassies via guidance from the Murr and with the blessing of [Maronite] Patriarch [Nasrallah Butrous] Sfeir," he added.

And on the recent controversy over rosaries and other Christian symbols bearing pictures of Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah alongside images of saints, Franjieh said the phenomenon was "normal."

"The expression of religious beliefs is not an insult to Jesus Christ and does not harm the saints. It reflects the relationship of Christianity and Hizbullah," he said.
The Resistance was "victorious," Franjieh told Al-Manar and those who supported "the defeatist policy of aggression and silence Gaza" would lose.