After interviewing President Joseph Aoun on Friday, Ortgo said that Hezbollah should not be included “in the future Lebanon government and that Hezbollah was” a red line “for Washington.
In response to the comments, Mohamed Rad, head of loyalty to the mass of the resistance – the political wing of Hezbollah – in the Lebanese Parliament, said that the statement of the American envoy “is full of hatred and lack of responsibility.”
“I targeted an integral part of the national agreement and the Lebanese political life that was back to the Israeli aggression and triumphed,” Rad said in a statement to the media on Friday.
Such American comments “are unacceptable intervention in Lebanese affairs and lack of respect for all diplomatic customs and international diplomacy rules.”
The Lebanese MP, Ortigos’s claim that Hezbollah was “defeated” by Israel, “is the victor who revealed the true image of the aggressor, and revealed how he committed collectively against civilians, children and women, targeting homes and hospitals and destroying the entire residential neighborhoods.”
Rad stressed that the Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon revealed the “ugly reality” of the regime, and the global community can know who truly finances terrorism and analyzes people from their lands.
He added: “We rely on the resistance of our people, which are based on the equation of resistance to the army, and the realistic equation that Lebanon can be proud of because it maintains its sovereignty.”
Mahmoud Qamati, Vice President of Hezbollah, also responded to the overlapping observations by the American envoy and said that Ortigos “threatened a large segment of the Lebanese people” through her statements.
The Presidency of Lebanon also said in a statement about X: “Some of what the American envoy to the Middle East, Morgan Ortridos, said, from the Baba Palace expresses her point of view, and the presidency does not care about it.”
In response to the Ortigos statement, Javari Mufti, Sheikh Ahmed Qaballan – a senior Shiite cleric and the strong Hezbollah ally – said in a statement: “Hezbollah is a national force and a representative of Lebanon.”
The latest development comes amid reports that the United States hinders efforts aimed at forming a new government in Lebanon through “pressure” on the most important levels of the country to restrict Hezbollah’s influence and allies in the next cabinet.
Five uncomfortable sources said, and Reuters quoted that US officials have conveyed messages to the Lebanese Prime Minister appointing Nawa Salam and President Joseph Aoun to reduce the influence of Hezbollah on the country’s sectarian policy.
SD/
