[AnNahar] Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
chief and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has noted that "everyone in Leb is a partner of  Hizbullah
...Party of God , a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
," not only the FPM.
Admitting that his movement’s alliance with the Iran-backed party has been "costly," Bassil told Euronews: "Our partnership with Hizbullah has been costly at the popular and diplomatic levels, but we have gained Leb’s stability and unity, because Hizbullah is a part of a people and not an gang."
"This partnership is not limited to the FPM, seeing as everyone in Leb is a partner of Hizbullah, as proved by the presence of a national unity government," Bassil added, pointing out that "we have no other choice but civil war."
"We can’t accept the classification of Hizbullah as a terrorist organization, as designated by Washington and one can’t compare between Hizbullah and the other groups that entered into the conflict arena in Syria," the FPM chief went on to say.
Bassil also said that the U.S. sanctions on Hizbullah are harmful to Leb and that the Lebanese government is exerting efforts to have them lifted.
Separately, Bassil acknowledged that Leb is reeling from a "severe" economic crisis but reassured that "the country is not on the brink of bankruptcy and collapse thanks to an adopted economic plan that has started to yield results through the decrease in the treasury’s deficit." 
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