Lebanese Newspapers Opinions After Sayyed Nasrallah's Press Conference

Islam Times reports from Almanar that Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s press conference on Thursday occupied headlines and op-eds in some Lebanese newspapers issued Friday.

As-Safir newspaper pointed that Sayyed Nasrallah addressed the Lebanese people in a very calm and clear manner, yet strong in its context. “He called on the Lebanese to be aware of the game of the nations with all its regional and domestic intersections which sought to take Lebanon hostage of bigger calculations, and nearly took the country from its regional position to an opposite location and from internal stability to civil war.”
The daily said that the current phase that Lebanon is passing through imposed on Sayyed Nasrallah to single out a large portion of his speech to the so called March 14 audience “which was emotionally driven, after the assassination of martyr Rafiq Hariri, to raise anti-Syria slogans; whereas five years later, it turned out to be that Syria was the main factor for a stable Lebanon on both political and security levels.”

In his press conference Thursday, the Hezbollah chief stressed that Prime Minister Saad Hariri informed him that the international court’s indictment that will be issued sometime soon, with implicate “undisciplined Hezbollah members”, something that Sayyed Nasrallah categorically rejected. His eminence said that the resistance, not Syria, was the target. His eminence called on so called March 14 leaders to make a review of their stances and admit their mistakes in past five years; mistakes, he added, that could have led Lebanon and the Lebanese to the abyss of civil war. The Sayyed praised MP Walid Jumblatt courage to make his own review and change his position, knowing that the Democratic Gathering leader was one of the most aggressive March 14 critics of Syria and Hezbollah.

“Sayyed Nasrallah’s positions in his press conference did not ease down the tense reality that emerged following his speech last Thursday, but in fact, it did not aggravate it as well,” said An-Nahar newspaper.
The daily expected that Sayyed Nasrallah’s “lengthy try of March 14 leaderships and all the previous phase since 2005” will be followed by a new chapter of hot campaigns and dispute. According to An-Nahar, what caught the eyes of the commentators in Sayyed Nasrallah’s new positions was the tone of his decisive tone particularly when he tackled the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s expected indictment “that was already inked and now awaits the time of issuance.”
Sayyed Nasrallah’s information and stances, the daily continued, were direct messages to three fundamental parties: Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the March 14 leadership, and Syria and its allies as he stressed Syria was no longer the target but the resistance is so, exclusively.

Sayyed Nasrallah told journalists that PM Hariri and Saudi Arabia can play a constructive role in preventing an internal sedition expected to accompany the STL’s indictment, exactly as Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea predicted.

“Indications of a preemptive stage-by-stage attack by Hezbollah lay stress on the party’s readiness to go as far as possible in facing attempts to aim at the idea of the resistance through demonizing its leaders and its arms. This is why Hezbollah is addressing the battle of the STL as life-or-death battle,” As-Safir’s Imad Marmal wrote.

“Lebanon will be hit by turmoil when Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare issues his findings next fall,” An-Nahar quoted a “high-ranking UN official in New York” on condition of anonymity Friday.

At the end of his press conference Sayyed Nasrallah said: Sayyed Nasrallah concluded his speech saying that Hezbollah was not afraid of anything, even the indictment. “Let them issue it now and let us finish already. Those who conspire against the resistance and Lebanon – and have so far failed – ought to be concerned because more schemes will be foiled. We know the nature of the responsibility that we’re shouldering and we urge those who have so far miscalculated their moves to make the right calculations this time.”