Lebanese PM rule out Hezbollah alliance in May election

By Wassim Samih Seifeddine, Ali Semerci and Gulsen Topcu

BEIRUT

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday ruled out an alliance with Hezbollah for the parliamentary elections set for May.

Dismissing an alliance with Hezbollah for the parliamentary pool, Hariri said: “We are not a movement that accepts people put themselves into a racist and sectarian box, lock it and then throw the key away,”

Hariri’s remarks came during his address to the gathering for the 13th anniversary of the death of Rafiq Hariri, who was assassinated in a February 2005 bombing in Beirut, in Al-Bayyal Complex in the capital.

Noting an allegiance to the 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, Hariri underscored his rejection for foreign tutelage.

Lebanon will hold parliamentary polls on May 8.

The scheduled elections will be the first since parliament elected Michel Aoun as Lebanon’s president in late 2016 after the post had stood vacant for more than two years.

By Wassim Samih Seifeddine, Ali Semerci and Gulsen Topcu

BEIRUT

Noting an allegiance to the 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, Hariri underscored his rejection for foreign tutelage.

Lebanon will hold parliamentary polls on May 8.

The scheduled elections will be the first since parliament elected Michel Aoun as Lebanon’s president in late 2016 after the post had stood vacant for more than two years.