Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem denied the resistance is "a platform used by some parties to carry out plots against others" on Wednesday, in response to accusations Syria was using Hizbullah to harm Lebanon. During an interview with the National News Agency, Qassem rejected plans to turn Lebanon into an arena for U.S. and foreign tutelage "for the sake of strengthening certain parties at the expense of others, or for settling scores from Lebanon." Qassem stressed the only condition for his party's full and open cooperation in Lebanese society was "no relations with the Israeli enemy." Pointing to Hizbullah's relations with both the March 8 and March 14 camps, Qassem highlighted "the need for cooperation between all parties to save the country.""The resistance had acknowledged previously the 'quartet' [Hizbullah, Amal, the Future Movement and Progressive Socialist Party] and voiced its support for the Future Movement and MP Saad Hariri," he said. "But even while MP Walid Jumblatt didn't acknowledge the quartet, we have never discontinued our contacts or cooperation with the Future Movement."
He said Hizbullah's statement of understanding with the Free Patriotic Movement on Monday was solely due to the fact that the FPM was the only group that agreed to such a document. Despite labeling relations with the Lebanese Forces as "normal," Qassem accused its leader Samir Geagea of "trying to give strategic dimensions that lead to separation instead of rapprochement." Geagea "is trying to accuse Hizbullah of doing things that are not in Hizbullah's best interests," he said. Qassem said Hizbullah's "one clear agenda" was to "rebuild the country," adding that the resistance "doesn't serve anyone and is not a passage for the plots of other sides to be carried out."