Hezbollah chief met with Syrian president after Saudi-Iran deal: Report
The Axis of Resistance has significantly bolstered coordination in the wake of the Chinese-sponsored Saudi-Iran rapprochement
By
News Desk
– May 10 2023
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(Photo credit: AFP)
A 9 May report released by Lebanese newspaper Nidaa al-Watan says that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the aftermath of the Saudi-Iranian détente, during which they reportedly discussed the issue of the presidency in Lebanon.
“The discussion touched on the issue of the presidency and the nomination of Suleiman Franjieh,” the report said.
Sources familiar with the meeting described it as “good,” adding that “the Syrian position [on Franjieh’s presidency] was identical to Iran’s position in terms of assigning the issue to the ally, Hezbollah.”
Damascus “will employ all capabilities for his election, but it does not and has not directly interfered until the moment,” the sources added.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Aoun expired in October last year.
Eleven parliamentary sessions to elect a president have consistently failed due to a lack of consensus over a candidate, a lack of quorum, and external pressures.
While Washington continues to push for army chief Joseph Aoun, Hezbollah has put its weight behind long-time ally of the resistance, Suleiman Franjieh, head of the Christian Marada party.
Franjieh is close to the Assad family and is a childhood friend to the Syrian president.
“With Syria regaining its seat in the League of Arab States, the file of the presidency in Lebanon has witnessed the entry of a new element into it,” the Nidaa al-Watan report claims, suggesting that Syria is now in more of a position to interfere in the Lebanese presidency.
Nasrallah has previously stressed that regional developments of the like have no effect on the election of a president in Lebanon and that this issue is purely internal.
Over the past several months, speculation and media reports have suggested that Saudi Arabia would not accept Franjieh as the president of Lebanon.
In response, the kingdom’s ambassador to Lebanon, Walid al-Bukhari, expressed ‘neutrality’ over the Lebanese presidency.
Following several meetings in Lebanon on 9 May, informed sources quoted Bukhari as calling out the ‘false interpretations’ of the Saudi position regarding the presidency.
“The Kingdom considers that it has no business to facilitate the election of anyone, nor to impede the election of anyone,” Al-Joumhouria newspaper cited the ambassador as saying.
“This is a Lebanese affair, and the political leaders must assume their responsibilities,” Bukhari added.
