Lebanon's top Christian party may end alliance with Hezbollah

Bassil's party has faced growing political pressure to distance itself from Hezbollah since the country's 2019 financial meltdown.

Hezbollah is classified by the United States and major western nations as a terrorist group.
Reuters

Hezbollah is classified by the United States and major western nations as a terrorist group.

Lebanon's top Christian party has indicated it is considering ending a political alliance with Iran-backed Hezbollah, threatening a fragile union that has shaped Lebanese politics for nearly 16 years.

Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement party said earlier this week there would be "political consequences" for action taken against his party by Lebanon's two main Shia parties Hezbollah and Amal.

Prominent figures close to the party have also said the 2006 Mar Mikhael Agreement between FPM and Hezbollah is at an end.

"Mikhael is dead," FPM pundit Charbel Khalil tweeted on Tuesday.

The party's support was critical in bringing President Michel Aoun, the FPM's founder, to power in 2016, and the FPM has provided critical Christian political cover for Hezbollah's armed presence under Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system.

Hezbollah has not publicly commented.

READ MORE: Australia declares Hezbollah as terrorist organisation

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Growing pressure 

Bassil's party has faced growing political pressure to distance itself from Hezbollah since the country's 2019 financial meltdown.

The group is classified by the United States and major western nations as a terrorist group.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah has taken a hardline stance against the judge investigating the August 2020 Beirut blast, causing a row that has left Prime Minister Najib Mikati's government unable to meet since Oct 12 even as poverty and hunger worsen.

READ MORE: Lebanon's Nasrallah says his Hezbollah group has 100,000 fighters

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