BEIRUT, LEBANON (3:30 P.M.) – Mustafa Alloush, a member of the Future Movement’s political bureau, said that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri will not resign as Prime Minister, despite the ongoing protests over the economic instability in the country.
In an interview with the Sputnik News Agency’s Arabic-language version, Alloush said that Hariri has no reason to resign unless is his presence is not wanted.
“I don’t think Hariri is going to resign,” Alloush said, pointing out that there is no intentional conspiracy to overthrow the government, but there is a kind of irresponsibility through the smuggling of gasoline and hard currency to Syria.
Alloush stressed that the main parties in the country that are opposed to Hariri, in particular, Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement, are not interested in overthrowing the Prime Minister “because the options are chaos, especially since there is great difficulty to produce an acceptable government.”
“We can point out that there is difficult economic situation and the prospects for this solution cannot be produced within a year or a year and a half or more, and citizens in general have a fear for their situation and their future, and this leads to further confusion and difficulty to move towards stability.”
He said that the combination of these issues increases the risks for Lebanon and in practice, the economic crisis complicates the situation.
He pointed out that “we have no data to say that there is an external conspiracy and we do not have data indicating who conspires internally.”
Finally, in regards to the New York Times article about Hariri paying nearly $16 million to a South African model, Alloush said: “It was talked about four or five years ago. Why are you talking about it now?”
