BEIRUT: Progressive Social Party official, Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour, on Wednesday played down Hezbollah remarks against PSP leader Walid Jumblatt.

“There is no political dispute or political problem between us and Hezbollah,” Abu Faour said during a visit to the Akkar region in north Lebanon. 

“Words that came from Al-Manar channel, which we respect, were not politically motivated,” he added.

This was a reference to Monday evening’s newscast on Al-Manar television, Hezbollah’s mouthpiece, which said Jumblatt seemed closer to the Lebanese Forces in his views on controversial remarks made by Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai.

“Therefore, there is no need to exaggerate things,” Abu Faour told reporters, stressing that all Jumblatt did was reminding Rai of the agreements made during all-party talks.  

Rai, currently at the center of a nationwide controversy over his statements on Syria and Hezbollah’s arms, sought Tuesday to calm a brewing political storm that has threatened to deepen divisions in the Christian heartland.

Jumblatt rejected “linking the fate of Lebanon to the liberation of the Shebaa Farms.

In a clear message to critics of Rai, Jumblatt being the harshest of them all, Hezbollah on Tuesday called for waiting before considering positions.

“Let us wait a little bit until the picture is clear. The problem is that tension arises when Lebanese rush to comment on a stance, whether from this side or another, without examining its intentions,” Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad said Tuesday.

“This is what happened when commenting on positions made by Rai; they did not spend one moment to examine the dimensions of the stance taken by the patriarch,” Raad told reporters after holding a meeting, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers, with former President Emile Lahoud at the latter’s house.

Jumblatt was quoted as saying that he did not understand Raad’s statement.

PSP spokesman Rami Rayyes, in turn, defended Jumblatt, and called for carefully reading his positions.

“It is better to re-read Jumblatt’s remarks quietly and carefully away from rumors,” Rayess said.