05 February 2019•Update: 05 February 2019
By Wassim Samih Seifeddine, Safiye Karabacak and Gulsen Topcu
BEIRUT
Hezbollah’s secretary-general castigated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday for claiming that Iran controls Lebanon's new government through his group.
The new Lebanese government consists of political forces, and Hezbollah is part of this formation, Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech, stressing it is not controlled by Hezbollah.
His remarks came in response to an allegation made by Netanyahu on Sunday.
“Iran has proxies. One of them is Hezbollah. Hezbollah just joined the government of Lebanon. That’s a misnomer; they actually control the government of Lebanon. It means that Iran controls the government of Lebanon," said Netanyahu, speaking to a delegation of 40 ambassadors to the United Nations before they headed to Israel’s northern border to inspect one of Hezbollah’s cross-border tunnels.
After months of deadlock, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced Thursday that the country has a new Cabinet.
Ever since Lebanon held parliamentary polls last May, Hariri has struggled to form a new government.
The process of forming a new cabinet has faced repeated delays amid mutual recriminations between leading political forces and demands by certain parties for greater representation.
