BEIRUT: Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad warned the March 14 alliance Sunday to cease what he described as its madness-driven attempts to destroy the country in its quest to reclaim power, stressing that his party’s patience had its limitations.

“When they left power they turned into madmen. Their holiest [objective] has become to destroy the country in order to return to power. Until when though?” Raad asked, reported the National News Agency.

Addressing the Lebanese opposition, Raad said his party would not allow it to carry out acts of destruction.

“What do you want? Either you are part of this country and want to play a completing role through your cooperation or you do not consider yourselves part of this country, so you go around destroying, and we will not allow destruction.”

In his speech, Raad stressed that Hezbollah’s patience had limits and outlined the limits of such tolerance.

“We say there are some people who are taking advantage of our patience and forgiveness, but these have their limits … As long as we are able to keep the unity and strength of the country intact, we will remain patient,” Raad said. “However, if we see a hand from the outside extend into the inside then we will cut it off."

Hezbollah has on several occasions accused the March 14 of serving a Western agenda, which it says aims to target the resistance.

Without naming the group, Raad reiterated accusations against the March 14 movement as serving foreign powers, saying: “it is backed and has a destructive project in the country and raises slogans that are in tune with foreign policies.

“We say in all honesty to those who aim to disarm the resistance and tarnish its [image] that they are part of the machine that serves the American-Israeli project in order to dominate Lebanon and return the Israeli occupation,” Raad added.

“They do not know the value of blood that has been spilled for the sake of liberation and therefore they have no comprehension of sovereignty and freedom at all. The only sovereignty they know is American sovereignty over our country so that they can hold on to a seat that secures their interests and their company’s interest,” Raad said in a clear reference to March 14 parties.

The March 14 movement has called for the disarmament of Hezbollah and has shunned the national dialogue called by President Michel Sleiman, arguing that the talks should focus solely on the issue of Hezbollah’s arms.

Raad’s scathing attack on the March 14 alliance comes amid growing pressure on the group to cooperate with an international court implicating members of the group of being involved in the assassination of Hariri’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as well as calls by the March 14 coalition for the resistance group to disarm.

In his address during the launching ceremony of the Imam Sadik center in Kfar Fila, Iqlim al-Touffah, east of the southern city of Sidon, Raad also warned that any attack on the resistance would be considered an attack on the Lebanese Army and any harm done to the army would be a deemed as targeting of Hezbollah.