Lebanese foreign minister lauds Hezbollah as pillar of national unity

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has lauded the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah as a pillar of the country’s stability and unity.

In an interview with Euronews on Saturday, Bassil, the Leader of Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), said the alliance between his party and the resistance movement is “definitely …saving the country and its national unity.”

“It’s avoiding that Lebanon slips into a conflict or civil war, something we all want to avoid,” he said.

The Lebanese foreign minister also denounced a US decision to designate the resistance movement as a “terrorist organization.”

“Hezbollah is part, a big part of our population. We cannot accept to accuse them of terrorism,” he said.

Earlier in July, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two Hezbollah members of Lebanon’s parliament and a security official responsible for coordinating between the resistance movement and the country’s security agencies.

Washington also accused the individuals of “undermining Lebanese financial institutions to assist Hezbollah and to evade US sanctions against” the resistance movement.

It was the first time that the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control put Lebanese parliamentarians on its sanctions list.

Separately, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the designations were meant to counter Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon.

Some 50 Hezbollah individuals and entities have been blacklisted by the Treasury since 2017.

ME