Beirut - Hezbollah pledged on Sunday that its political rivals would be included in Lebanon's next government should its candidate emerge as the new prime minister, as MPs readied to cast their votes.
“If our candidate is successful, we will ask him to form a government of national partnership in which all parties will participate,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a brief televised address.
“We respect everyone's right to representation,” he added. “We were unable to agree on a person, on who should be premier ... but that does not at all indicate that the resistance seeks to exclude or cancel out any party in Lebanon.”
Nasrallah's speech came hours before President Michel Sleiman was due to kick off talks with parliamentary groups on appointing a new premier after the Iranian-backed Shi’a party brought down the unity government of Saudi- and US-backed Saad Hariri.
Hezbollah and its allies have ruled out nominating Hariri for reappointment. Hariri however has said he would nonetheless run for a second term.
The vote is expected to be tight, and experts estimated the country's 128 MPs were equally divided between Hariri and Hezbollah's candidate.
Nasrallah, who struck a conciliatory tone on Sunday, did not confirm who his MPs and their allies would nominate for premiership but said veteran Sunni Muslim politician Omar Karameh had been their top choice.
“The truth is that Omar Karameh contacted me and thanked us but said that he was older now and was not in the best of health and that he would rather we found another candidate for premiership,” Nasrallah said.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who on Friday announced he was siding with Hezbollah in the political feud, now stands to play kingmaker with his 11-strong bloc.
Hariri's government collapsed on January 12 when Hezbollah and its allies pulled 11 ministers from the cabinet in a dispute over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is probing the 2005 murder of Saad's father, ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
Nasrallah, who has accused the Netherlands-based tribunal of being under US-Israeli control, has said he expects it will implicate Hezbollah members and warned of grave repercussions. - Sapa-AFP