Lebanon Elections: The Spirit of Resistance Is Inextinguishable

Rasa - Results show that Hezbollah and its political allies have secured over half the seats in Lebanon’s first parliamentary vote in nine years.

News ID: 437631

Date: 11 May 2018 - 22:58

RNA - Hezbollah as well as groups and individuals affiliated to it won at least 67 seats in Lebanon’s parliament, according to the Sunday results cited by politicians and campaigns and reported in Lebanese media. Hezbollah's allies include the Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the Christian Free Patriotic Movement founded by President Michel Aoun.

As maintained by the secretary general of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the results was a major victory for the resistance group. But it’s more than that:

1- The vote results was a gift to the resistance movement by the people of Lebanon for helping Syria, Iran and Russia defeat the foreign-backed terrorist groups of ISIL and Al-Qaeda in the neighboring Arab state. There is no doubt that the vote results were a great moral and political victory for Hezbollah, which protects Lebanon on all fronts.

2- The victory for Hezbollah does in no way mean that there will be no opportunity for other political factions to represent themselves in the elections. Quite the opposite, it mitigated the risks of exclusion from Lebanon’s political structure, and assured all sides that they will have a role in the new administration. Nasrallah emphasizes that Hezbollah needs a strong representation in the parliament in order to fight corruption, honor its promises and build Lebanon. To that end, Hezbollah needs all the help it can get from other political groups.

3- The United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia did everything they could in their smear campaign to poison public opinion towards Hezbollah – including direct Saudi money trying to buy off voters. Their efforts, however, ended in failure, just as the way they failed to regime change Syria in alliance with their terror proxies after Iran and Hezbollah intervened.

4- The vote results does in no way mean that the United States and the mere extras will from now on sit on their hands and watch Hezbollah deliver on its election promises that include protection of the country, national reconciliation and development. They will waste no time in sowing sectarian discord and encouraging Lebanon’s political factions to cancel Hezbollah.

5- Hariri has confirmed that his Future Movement lost the elections. This almost certainly means that, once finalized, Hariri’s premiership is over. However, that does in no way mean that Hariri is now a rival to Hezbollah, or that the Sunni parties within Hezbollah’s March 8 Alliance would get the spot. Lebanon has an informal system of power-sharing among religions, with a Sunni prime minister, a Shiite parliament speaker, and a Maronite Christian president. This means all substantial blocs have some members of each religion and they can and they should work together in the new parliament.

6- It is too soon to speculate who a March 8 prime minister would be. The most recent was Najib Mikati, who most recently served in 2011-2013. There likely won’t be that many choices, as the alliance is predominantly Christian and Shiite, with only small Sunni representation. However, the March 8 nominee for the top office will be the prime minister of Lebanon and not just one party.

No doubt, Hezbollah’s victory in Lebanon’s first parliamentary vote in nine years has upset the United States and its regional allies. This is because the distinctive, palpable, embodied and inextinguishable energy of the resistance movement of Hezbollah will also infuse other resistance movements in the region, particularly in Yemen and Palestine, with a sense of possibility and shared determination and confidence.

According to Fars News Agancy, this energy did not come from nowhere or from some essential sectarian force. This inextinguishable energy exists in other resistance movements as well. Indeed, they also have the shared determination and confidence to “demand the impossible” for anti-colonial liberation and against authoritarian-apartheid regimes spread like wildfire across the region, shaking the old and not-so-old imperial Zionist and dictatorial orders.

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