Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has adopted the nomination of the head of the Marada Movement, Suleiman Franjieh, for the post of President of the Republic in Lebanon, in the party’s first official announcement of the candidate it supports in the presidential race.
Nasrallah said in a speech yesterday: “With regard to (Hezbollah), we do not have anyone named Hezbollah’s candidate, and this designation is used to create enemies for it and burn it. But what we have is a candidate supported by Hezbollah. He added, “The specifications we want are present in a person, Suleiman Franjieh.”
Nasrallah revealed that he had told the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Representative Gebran Bassil, earlier that the specifications that his party wanted in the president, which are “not stabbing the back of the resistance, courage, and communication with all parties and others” apply to him and Franjieh. He added, “I told him at the time that he (Basil) does not want to run, and that he says (that) he has no chances.” Therefore, “the one present is Franjieh.”
And the Secretary-General, “Hezbollah,” touched on the understanding paper with the “Free Patriotic Movement,” stressing that “our support for Minister Suleiman Franjieh’s candidacy does not mean abandoning or withdrawing from the understanding.” He said, “We are keen on this understanding and we are still, but this understanding did not turn us into one party, rather we are still two parties, and there is nothing in the understanding that obliges the other to agree on the name of the President of the Republic, the President of the Council, or the Prime Minister.”
Hezbollah officially announces its support for Franjieh in the Lebanese presidential elections