Hezbollah and the other forces under its wing have warned Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam against forming a “de facto government", stating that such a government would endanger stability in the country. The fact of the matter is that Hezbollah's insistence on holding the obstructing one-third in the new government cabinet is the real attempt to impose a “de facto situation" on the government and on the country. Indeed, Hezbollah, which imposes its own de facto situation on security in Lebanon, relaxing it when it wants to and disrupting it when peace does not suit its interests and plans, finds no embarrassment in demanding to be allowed to act as sole overseer of what it considers to be sound government performance by holding the trump card of obstruction. It does not even take into consideration Salam's wish to himself represent such a guarantee, as the one holding the constitutional right to form the government cabinet in the way he sees fit, in coordination with the President of the Republic. Hezbollah also ignores the fact that the government does not need to obtain the vote of confidence of the political parties represented in Parliament before being formed or during the process of deliberation to form it, but only needs to obtain the vote of confidence of the majority of Parliament in order to assume its functions and responsibilities after being formed, and not before. Yet Hezbollah is forcefully dominating the formation process, as well as all of the country's institutions and political parties, through the power of fear that it has imposed on Lebanese leaders with the aim of making them submit to its own will and decisions. Such behavior is in tune with the view the leaders and members of Hezbollah hold of themselves as the “most honorable of men" and with the condescending view of others this entails. This is in addition to the excess power that resides in the party's arsenal, which is ready for use where the motive and need arise, without it being difficult to find a pretext, as has appeared with the participation of Hezbollah fighters in the war in Syria. It is only evident for those bearing the description of “most honorable of men" not to give any weight to the stances and interests of other citizens, as they from the onset shed doubt on the latter's patriotism and integrity. This is why Hezbollah imposes on all politicians to be tested daily before its partisan and media tribunal, so as to prove their good behavior and their merit. With such behavior, Hezbollah places its coalition, along with the majority of the Shiite community in Lebanon, in a position of confrontation with the country's remaining groups, movements and sects. Yet it seems that it gives no weight or consideration to this. Indeed, it behaves with regard to the formation of the government cabinet as if it were the custodian of the state, its President and its institutions, most prominently that of the Cabinet of Ministers. It even considers itself to have done the Sunni community a favor by approving of a Prime Minister “from the other side". Whatever suits Hezbollah's interests has thus become consistent with the constitution or with its own interpretation of it, while whatever disagrees with such interests is at odds with what it calls “the spirit of the National Pact". Those who would go against such a principle would therefore find themselves exposed to media campaigns and to threats to the country's internal stability and fragile state of peace. Hezbollah makes use of the pretext of “the spirit of the National Pact" in the manner that serves its complete hegemony over the Shiite community, through its well known strength, after having been able to eliminate or silence the other families, parties and voices within this community. As a result, its presence in the government or lack thereof has become expressive of the representation of the Shiite community in its entirety. This does not apply to any other sect, after Hezbollah has managed to breach the Sunni community, which allows it to find leaders who support it from within the latter, just as it breached the Maronite community by means of the famous “memorandum". It can therefore now exclude leaders who hold considerable weight within the Sunni and Maronite communities, without such leaders being able to strengthen their claims with the argument of inconsistency with “the spirit of the National Pact" – and that is exactly what Hezbollah did with the government of now resigned Prime Minister Najib Mikati. And if Hezbollah is demanding to control the fate of the government, by insisting on obtaining that constitutional innovation it has dubbed the “obstructing one-third", it is placing its own stances, political considerations and regional interests above the constitution itself, and in fact above the interests of the country as a whole. For Hezbollah has made use of such a guarantee, which it demanded to hold in Saad Hariri's former cabinet, in order to topple the latter, as a favor to Syria's decisions and interests at the time, without giving any consideration to the effect this would have on internal stability and on the balance between sects and state institutions. This experience, as well as the novel concept of a “king minister", has proven that the decision to control the government is taken by Hezbollah in order to serve foreign interests connected to the regimes of Syria and Iran, ones that Hezbollah places at the top of its list of priorities. Government performance has absolutely nothing to do with Hezbollah's claims of concern for national domestic interests.
