Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said Friday that he was “not playing the role of mediator” in the showdown between Hizbullah and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri over the proposed Ouzai bridge, as he emerged from a three-hour meeting with the top leader of the resistance.
“I am not a mediator and everything happens in the open,” Aridi said, describing his talks with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as “a concern for all parties to agree on the security and stability in Lebanon and to unify their efforts.”
Aridi said he felt compelled to “resolve” the issue by using “appropriate methods.”
“Let’s allow issues to take their course with time,” he said. “By wisdom and awareness, we can reach positive results.”
However, Aridi said the unusually long meeting with Nasrallah at Hizbullah’s general secretariat allotted little time for the Ouzai issue.
Instead, the minister said that the two discussed the “very serious and dramatic stage that Lebanon and the region are going through.”
Nasrallah’s views showed the “utmost concern” for maintaining a political atmosphere conducive for the country to confront its challenge,” Aridi said.
The information minister called on all sides to “adhere to the state and its projects which would hopefully aid all parts of the country,” referring to this week’s Ouzai bridge brawl.
“I am sure that our brothers in Hizbullah are aware and know that it is vital to work for the good of the country,” Aridi said, adding that the government is also “striving to reach the same goal.”
He maintained that fiery rhetoric over the contentious overpass “ought to be limited” and hoped that other problems facing the country would also be solved “in a calm way.”
In reaction to a warning Friday from Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Michael Melchinor, that his government might launch attacks in Lebanon if it continued to be a base for Hizbullah attacks, the information minister said that “neither Israel nor its foreign minister or his deputy or government could decide on the continuity or discontinuity of Hizbullah or of any other political party in Lebanon.”
He added: “This is a Lebanese decision. And Israel would continue its attempts to interfere in Lebanese affairs and to undermine the security and stability in Lebanon. We always expect Israel to act this way, but we have to know how to deal with (their) intentions.”

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