Heir Apparent

Do you believe that President Obama's Cairo speech had an effect on your victory?
No, I think the Lebanese people were really involved in the local politics of Lebanon. I think President Obama made a fantastic speech. I think he made a historic opening to a part of the world that had been looked upon as forgotten. It is a historic opening up to the Muslim world, giving credit but at the same time saying we are all human beings and we all breathe the same air. In the end, there are things that the Muslim world should understand and also the Israelis—that peace should come to the region and this is the only way to move forward. We have been talking about the peace process since the Madrid Conference in 1990. Nineteen years have passed and we have not been able to advance. It is giving pretext to certain countries to use what Israel is doing to incite regional problems.

You are talking about Iran, correct?
Iran and other countries. As much as people say that the Palestinians are divided, so is Israel. Israelis need to make a decision about the peace process. There are big divisions within Israel and this is not going anywhere. At the end of the day, for the sake of humanity and for the sake of security and the region, everybody should sacrifice a little bit. The Arabs came out with a peace initiative. It was extremely forthcoming and it is on the table. Instead of working with it and negotiating, Israel has put it aside. We have an opportunity today with President Obama to really bring peace to the region.

When you say you will reach out to all the parties, does that mean you will reach out to Hezbollah?
Yes, we will reach out to all political parties. We won the majority but there are also people who voted for the 8th of March Alliance in which Hezbollah is included. This is something we need to deal with. There are no blue states and red states. We want to unite Lebanon and find a common ground in unifying Lebanon for the interests of Lebanon.

Will Hezbollah be in the government?
We would like to see a government that includes everybody but a government that works.

So you don't think Hezbollah will say they have a veto?
I don't want to make people take a position before we even get to the negotiating table. But what happened with this election—I think everybody got the message that the people want a government that works. We have seen the negativity of a blocking minority. We haven't seen any positivity from it.

What do you hope your relationship with Syria will be?
One thing that we have achieved that we did not have in the previous Parliament is that we have reached a diplomatic relationship with Syria—we have an embassy of Lebanon in Syria and we have an embassy of Syria in Lebanon. This is a big gain. We need to evolve this relationship into one where the two countries respect each other and have a better relationship.

Isn't it true that a lot of Lebanese don't feel warmly about Syria?
I know. But the United States is engaging with Syria. The Europeans are engaging with Syria. We are neighbors with Syria. We think that we have to have a diplomatic relationship with Syria where they respect Lebanon the way any other country respects any other country.