House Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday lashed out at rival Democratic Gathering leader MP Walid Jumblatt for accusing him of becoming a "mail box" for Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. "The parliament speaker has the honor to be a mail box for the resistance that he was the first to establish," Berri said in a statement released by his office.The statement said Jumblatt's attack of the "parliament speaker is aimed at forcing him (Berri) to relinquish all positive initiatives and his incessant efforts to unify ranks which you constantly reject."
Jumblatt on Wednesday accused Berri of becoming a "mail box for Hassan Nasrallah." "Unfortunately Berri has finished himself with his own hands," Jumblatt said in an interview with the youth supplement of the daily An Nahar. Excerpts of the interview were distributed by the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
In 2005 Jumblatt was the leading supporter of Berri to be the speaker of the parliament and lobbied hard for him. Jumblatt lost faith in Berri after the resignation of the Shiite ministers from the cabinet. Jumblatt saw Berri transformed from being the leader of the Amal movement to becoming the rubber stamp of Hezbollah. Berri refused to convene the parliament ever since the Shiite Ministers resigned, despite pressure from several groups.
Berri's credibility suffered greatly during his November 2006 trip to Iran. He was asked right after the resignation of the Shiite ministers from the cabinet " if the cabinet was still constitutional " He responded by saying " of course it is " . He later , reportedly after pressure from Syria and Iran , retracted the statement and said the cabinet was unconstitutional .