Alagha 475al-Musawi, Hizbullah’s foreign relations officer and member of its Political
Council.^61 On the same day, Nasrallah affirmed the statement,^62 contrary
to his earlier public declarations.^63 Two days later Sanyura labeled the
Hizbullah establishment as “oppressors.”
A tug of war
In April 2007, al-Akhbar^64 columnist Nikolas Nasif commented^65 that
there were three main points in the ongoing tug of war between the
Sanyura cabinet and the Hizbullah-led opposition: 1) the international tri-
bunal,^66 2) the national unity cabinet,^67 and 3) the presidency. Nasif main-
tained that Hizbullah had lost the first two issues but the third was not yet
determined. He questioned what would happen to Hizbullah’s credibility
following these “defeats.” What seems to substantiate Nasif’s analysis is
that the discourse of all the parties shifted to the issue of the presidency,
which then dominated public political discussion. Qasim, deputy secretary
general of Hizbullah, admonished that the president^68 should be elected
by a two-thirds majority of the parliament, not the simple majority that
14 March Trend was lobbying for. The FPM leader ‘Auon proposed that
the president be directly elected by the people. Since 8 March Group does
not recognize the legitimacy and constitutionality of the Saynura cabinet,
it proposed either the holding of early legislative elections or one-third
veto power in any future cabinet. 14 March Trend insisted on electing the
president first before discussing the formation of the national unity cabi-
net and any agreement on a new electoral law upon which to base the May
2009 legislative elections. Although both groups (14 March and 8 March)
agreed on Lebanese army commander General Michel Sulayman as a con-
sensus candidate for the presidency, the tug of war continued.
n the meantime, the security situation in Lebanon was deterio-I
rating further, with old and new conflicts erupting in violence. Two 14
March members of parliament were assassinated.^69 And armed clashes
between Fatah al-Islam militants and the Lebanese Army broke out on 20
May 2007 in and around the Nahr al-Barid Palestinian refugee camp near
Tripoli.^70 Fatah al-Islam later extracted retribution for Nahr al-Barid with
the assassination of Lebanese Army Brigadier General François al-Hajj.^71