BEIRUT: Hezbollah expects Lebanon’s parliamentary election to produce a unity government that will be internationally recognized even if the Shiite group and its allies win a majority.
Deputy leader Sheikh Naim Kassem also welcomed a review of policy toward Hezbollah by Britain, which says it is willing to talk to the political wing of a movement listed as a terrorist group by Washington. “We welcome this British revision and perhaps there will be meetings in the coming days,” said Kassem. “There is no request for a meeting, but we expect this to happen soon,” he said, adding that Hezbollah already had “wide contacts” with other European governments.
Hezbollah’s military arm is on Britain’s list of banned organizations, but the organization itself makes no distinction between its political and military functions.
The group heads a pro-Syria coalition that hopes to overturn the parliamentary majority held by an anti-Damascus alliance.
Kassem forecast a narrow victory for Hezbollah and its allies, including Christian politician Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, and said he expected the formation of another national unity government after the June 7 election. “I expect that there will be a government of national unity, regardless of who is the loser or winner,” Kassem said.
He said he had not the “slightest concern of a boycott” of the government were Hezbollah and its allies to win a majority.
Some of Hezbollah’s rivals have said Western states may shun the government if the group and its allies won the election, drawing on a precedent set by a boycott of Hamas after it won a Palestinian legislative election in 2006.
“We are meeting with delegates of European states and international institutions and they tell us clearly ... that they will deal with whoever wins, even if the opposition wins,” Kassem said.
