Nasrallah: ‘We want president that is not submissive to US’

Secretary-general of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah announced on Friday that the next Lebanese president should not be “submissive” to the US nor “betray” the resistance, Arab48.com reported.

“We want a president who is not submissive to the US and does not betray the resistance, but protects it. Protecting the resistance is not stabbing it in the back or selling it,” Nasrallah stated.

President Michel Aoun left the presidency at the end of October when his six-year mandate ended. Meanwhile, Parliament has failed to agree on a successor during five meetings.

During the meetings, the anti-Hezbollah MPs voted for MP Michel Moawad to become president, who is said to be a close ally of the US, but Hezbollah’s MPs cast white cards.

“Resistance is a large part of the Lebanese people,” Nasrallah asserted. “The Lebanese want a president who accepts the resistance, is courageous, puts Lebanon’s interests over his own interests and is not bought or sold,” he added.

Nasrallah said that no one is happy with the presidency vacuum and that the country wants to choose a president as fast as possible.

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He reiterated that the country was safe with President Aoun because he was “courageous”, and the resistance acted as a protective trophy for Lebanon over the past six years, and it was a “decisive factor” in achieving the maritime borders.

Following two years of a presidency vacuum, 46 MPs elected Aoun as president in 2016.

Lebanon is currently suffering a very severe economic crisis and has been run by a caretaker government since 2019.