Nasrallah: Hezbollah does not support gov’t resignation, ‘time is short’

Following two days of protests, Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made a public address saying the group was not demanding the government resign.

Nasrallah said in a televised speech that he supported the government, but called for a new agenda and “new spirit,” adding that ongoing protests showed the way forward was not new taxes. Nasrallah also claimed that  it would take “a year or two” to form a new government and that “time is short.”

Any tax imposed on the poor would push him to call supporters to go take to the streets, Nasrallah added.

“Shall #Hezbollah respond to demands urging us to participate in the demonstrations, it won’t back down until our demands are met even if we had to stay for months in the streets,” Nasrallah said, according to a tweet by the Hezbollah-run news website Al-Ahed.

Sayyed #Nasrallah: Shall #Hezbollah respond to demands urging us to participate in the demonstrations, it won’t back down until our demands are met even if we had to stay for months in the streets. pic.twitter.com/H5y7zDACRV

— Al-Ahed (@AlahednewsEn) October 19, 2019

“Those who escape responsibility must be tried, especially those who have brought the country into this difficult situation,”  Al-Ahed tweeted, quoting Nasrallah.

Security forces fired tear gas and chased down protesters in Beirut on Friday after tens of thousands of people across Lebanon marched to demand the demise of a political elite they accuse of looting the economy to the point of collapse.

These are the biggest protests in Lebanon since the 2011 Arab revolts, which saw the toppling of four presidents. The demonstrators took to the streets to demand that Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government, including President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, resign.

“We came to the streets because we can no longer bear this situation. This regime is totally corrupt,” said Fadi Issa who marched with his son told Reuters. “They are all thieves, they come into the government to fill their pockets, not to serve the country.”

“Whatever the solution, we no longer have time and I am personally giving myself only a little time. Either our partners in government and in the nation give a frank response to the solution, or I will have another say,” Hariri told Reuters. “The deadline left is very short. It’s 72 hours.”

In his address, Nasrallah said “When the government takes measures that restore people’s trust, the Lebanese people will accept,” Al-Ahed tweeted.

Sayyed #Nasrallah: When the government takes measures that restore people’s trust, the Lebanese people will accept pic.twitter.com/77brjtsty5

— Al-Ahed (@AlahednewsEn) October 19, 2019