Beirut, January 11: Hezbollah finalised a reconciliation agreement on Sunday with Druze leader Walid Jumblatt that has diffused tensions between the two Lebanese parties after deadly clashes in May 2008.
Leaders of the two sides emphasised their commitment to national unity in speeches broadcast on Hezbollah’s television station Al-Manar, with Jumblatt stressing the importance of ending the tensions.
“If the fighting had spread… the country would have fallen into a vicious cycle of violence that would have put an end to the co-existence” of Lebanon’s multiple religious communities, Jumblatt said at the reconciliation meeting in Shweifat, southeast of Beirut.
Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad praised Jumblatt’s courage.
He said the partnership was of “strategic interest” and that the two parties would “remain united on different issues, against the (Israeli) enemy that threatens us,” reading a speech on behalf of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah is originally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli occupation of south Lebanon. Israel continues to occupy the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.
Since August, Jumblatt has gradually distanced himself from the parliamentary majority in Lebanon’s national unity government which Saad Hariri formed in November.
The formation came after more than four months of tough negotiations with Hariri’s Hezbollah-led rivals.
The winning alliance headed by Saad Hariri won 71 seats in the 128-member parliament in the election against 57 for the opposition led by Hezbollah.
The Hezbollah opposition had actually secured the majority (52%) of the votes in Lebanon, but could not secure a majority of Parliamentary seats (it won 45%) because of the nature of the sectarian government system in the country.
—Agencies