Tension between “Hezbollah” and the Free Patriotic Movement over an electricity crisis in areas mainly inhabited by Shiites boiled over this week.
Members from Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc sent on Thursday an indirect message to caretaker Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil, who belongs to the FPM.
“Unbalanced power cuts across Lebanon could spark popular unrest,” the bloc warned following its weekly meeting.
"The areas of Tyre, Nabatieh, Baalbek-Hermel and the southern suburbs of Beirut are once again appealing to the Ministry of Energy and Electricite du Liban (EDL) to honor their commitments," the statement read.
Those areas are inhabited by Shiites who mainly back Hezbollah and its ally the Amal Movement.
This year, the Lebanese Forces, Amal and the Marada Movement have criticized the FPM’s electricity plan, blaming it for the failure to solve the country’s power crisis.
Despite its rhetoric against the Energy Minister, a member of the “Hezbollah” parliamentary bloc placed the party’s latest statement in the “framework of demanding people’s rights.”
MP Walid Sukkarieh, who is close to the party, stressed the bloc was not at loggerheads with the ministry, rather it was “warning it.”
“We are not criticizing based on political grounds, but based on calls to address the situation of the areas deprived of electricity,” Sukkarieh said, adding that the crisis is the result of the ministry’s failure to adopt a comprehensive policy, which starts by producing energy and later expanding the adequate networks to deliver electricity to all areas.
