Nasrallah welcomes election of Michel Aoun as Lebanon president

Secretary General of Hezbollah resistance movement Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has welcomed the election of the new president of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, arguing that the movement had been unjustly accused of obstructing the election over the past two and a half years.

Addressing through a televised speech a gathering in Beirut on the martyrdom anniversary of Hezbollah commander Hajj Mustafa Shahadah in Syria back in October 2014, Nasrallah stated that some parties and factions in Lebanon sought to link the presidential elections in Lebanon with the Iranian nuclear talks and the Syrian crisis irrespective of the fact that both Tehran and Damascus had reiterated that the election was a Lebanese issue.

“We were honest since the very beginning in our endorsement of Michel Aoun as president, and we spared no effort for the election to achieve its goals,” the Hezbollah chief pointed out.

He underscored that nothing lies between the Hezbollah resistance movement and President Aoun other than “trust,” strongly dismissing allegations that his groups is looking for presidential favors and bargains.

Nasrallah further praised Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri as the guardian of the country in times of difficulty.

The Hezbollah secretary general then called upon all Lebanese political parties to cooperate with Aoun for the sake of Lebanon’s well-being at a time when conflicts and crises are plaguing in the Middle East region.

Nasrallah further stated that Hezbollah did not name Saad al-Hariri to form a new government as prime minister, stressing that the resistance movement solely offered all “possible facilities for his nomination.”

He emphasized that Hezbollah supports the formation of an all-inclusive government, saying, “We are not the negotiating side. Only Speaker Berri is entitled to negotiate about forming the new government on our behalf.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Nasrallah rejected allegations that the recent Yemeni missile attack against Saudi Arabia was aimed at Islam's holiest and most revered site.

“The propaganda claiming that the Yemenis fired a Ballistic rocket at Mecca is a big sarcastic lie,” he stated.

Late on October 27, Yemeni soldiers and their allies fired an indigenous Borkan-1 (Volcano-1) missile towards King Abdulaziz International Airport, located 19 kilometers north of the western Saudi port city of Jeddah.

A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, later told the official Saba news agency that the 12.5-meter-long missile had hit its target accurately and left massive destruction at the airport.

Saudi media outlets, however, reported that the kingdom’s missile systems intercepted and destroyed the solid propellant and Scud-type missile before it could cause any damage.

The Saudi military claimed that the Yemeni missile was fired toward the holy city of Mecca.

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