BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem said Wednesday that March 14’s bet that regional developments will change the balance of power in Lebanon is a losing one.

Speaking one day after a March 14 rally to mark the seventh anniversary of statesman Rafik Hariri’s assassination, during which his son former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he assumed responsibility for supporting the popular uprising in Syria, Qassem called the demonstrations “unsuccessful.”

“No matter what developments take place in Syria, and they [developments] appear to be in the interest of the regime and its sustainability ... they will not change the equation in Lebanon because the equation in Lebanon is of people’s resistance, and it holds justice, and could not be shaken by tornadoes,” Qassem said, adding that that “the resistance today is part of a defense strategy that was decided in Cabinet.”

Speaking during a lecture at the Lebanese University in Hadath, Qassem said March 14 wants to “transform the north into a ... reserve to defeat the [Syrian] regime and Syrian stability, as well as shelter arms and people.”

In his Tuesday speech via satellite from Paris, Hariri called on Hezbollah to surrender its arms to Lebanese authorities in order to relieve the Lebanese people of the danger of violence. Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea also spoke at the Tuesday rally, and called for the departure of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet, saying “this government is in a state of disarray.”

Mikati postponed Cabinet sessions at the beginning of this month following a ministerial dispute over appointments to key public administration posts.

Several other politicians also weighed Wednesday on the topics tackled at the rally. MP Antoine Zahra, a member of the Lebanese Forces, said Wednesday that “we cannot but support a people revolt for their freedom and democracy ... we can’t go back to the Syrian regime as it was.”

He echoed Geagea’s calls for Cabinet to step down, as “ministers are unable to carry out their responsibilities,” and said that the insistence of Hezbollah to “lead the game and obstruct and control the state will not lead to any results.”

Future Movement MP Samir Jisr said the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, set up to investigate and try the killers of Rafik Hariri and others – will not be up for discussion at any future national dialogue session, given that the matter was agreed upon during a previous session and that Hezbollah’s weapons were the sole item to be discussed.

“The matter now is the issue of weapons and we are in principle with President [Michel Sleiman’s] proposal to resume dialogue but first we have to discuss the items on the agenda.”

National dialogue has been stalled for over a year, with March 14 insisting that Hezbollah’s arms should be the sole topic, and Hezbollah saying it will discuss a national defense strategy but not its weapons.

Future Movement MP Hadi Hobeish said his party was open to discussion with Hezbollah, “despite their position regarding the STL.” The party has dismissed the U.N.-backed STL as “an American-Israeli” court, and has vowed not to turn over the four suspects indicted by the court, who are Hezbollah members. Hariri Tuesday called on Hezbollah to reconsider its strands on the tribunal.

Ex-Minister Mohammad Shatah, an adviser of Saad Hariri, praised the latter’s vow to prevent any Sunni-Shiite strife as a result of the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria.

He added that Hariri had honed in on two key issues: “That you can’t deal with the issue of the STL by trying to protect indicted people and obstruct the tribunal’s work ... [and] that Lebanon ... cannot be protected by the presence of an army other than the national army, because it weakens Lebanese security.”