Naharnet

Fadlallah Hits Back at March 14 over Karam Release, Marouni Slams 'Treason Accusations'

The evening round on the second day of parliamentary debate on the government’s policies was rife with harsh criticism from the opposition and calls for better performance from the ruling camp, amid several verbal clashes over Hizbullah’s controversial arsenal of weapons.

MP Hassan Fadlallah, member of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, snapped back at the rival March 14 camp over accusations that his party had notably remained silent over the recent controversial release of Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam from prison, less than two years after he was convicted of collaborating with Israel.

“You are the last party entitled to talk about this issue,” Fadlallah said, accusing the March 14 camp of negligence in addressing the issue during its time in power.

“The Resistance’s stance on the judicial verdicts has always been general, seeing the problem in the nature of verdicts rather than in the individuals,” said Fadlallah.

The Hizbullah lawmaker stressed that his party’s arsenal of arms “protects all the Lebanese from Israel, even those criticizing it.”

Phalange bloc MP Elie Marouni hit back at Fadlallah, saying “we have been killed without retaliating, and had it not been for our resistance, there would not have remained any inch in this country for them to fight for.”

“If this rhetoric is aimed at accusing the other camp of treason and at pushing us to take up arms again, then we are ready,” Marouni added.

He stressed that “with this government, there is no political, social, environmental or food security,” accusing the government of disassociating itself from the needs of “the country and the citizens.”

For his part, MP Estephan Doueihi, member of Marada Movement’s Free Unified Lebanon bloc, said “we need a unifying rhetoric more than ever that immunizes Lebanon against the repercussions of the ongoing events” in the region.

The accusations launched by the opposition “contain a lot of injustice, as it is unacceptable to blame the government for the accumulations of the past,” Doueihi added.

Source: Naharnet


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