By The Daily Star BEIRUT: Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said in an interview published Friday that Hezbollah is making decisions that aren’t in the best interest of Lebanon. Nevertheless, in an interview with Magazine, a French-language Lebanese publication, Bassil said that the Free Patriotic Movement that he heads supports Hezbollah’s actions against Israel and terrorism. “On internal questions, Hezbollah makes choices that do not serve the interests of the Lebanese state, and all of Lebanon pays the price. … There is corruption that eats away at us and we can’t carry on this way,” Bassil was quoted by the publication as saying. The FPM and Hezbollah have been allies since the party’s founder and current President Michel Aoun struck and memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah in 2006. Domestically, he is quoted as saying, the FPM “remains a guarantee for Hezbollah should Lebanon be attacked by Israel or come under terrorist aggression.” Bassil’s published comments came as the country is still reeling from the spat between the FPM and Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement after a video of Bassil calling Berri a “thug” was leaked.

Berri and Hezbollah are historical allies. “In the MOU with Hezbollah, there is a fundamental clause concerning the construction of the state,” Bassil told the publication. “Unfortunately, this point is not put into practice, under the pretext of strategic considerations.” As for Christian unity, Bassil said his party supports it, but not at the expense of Lebanon’s best interests. “The Christians cannot live outside of the state. The unity of the whole community is important but not at the detriment of the state.”

Bassil’s media office later issued a statement clarifying aspects of what had been published and carried by local media. Nevertheless, the statement didn’t deny what he told the publication. “Some media outlets are taking excerpts from Bassil’s conversation with ‘Magazine.’ The truth is that Bassil said that ‘[FPM’s] relationship with Hezbollah is a strategic one, it will continue, and it broke the record for political relationships in Lebanon and that we are on same wavelength regarding strategic matters.” According to the statement, Bassil “regrets that there are some differences in local matters. There are some decisions that Hezbollah takes in internal matters that don’t serve the state and this is what makes Lebanon pay the price. One of the main items of the MOU was to build a state and this isn’t being implemented under the pretext of external policies.”