Change and Reform, National Struggle Front to Meet Next Week

A meeting is scheduled to be held next week between members of the Change and Reform and National Struggle Front blocs, lawmaker Ibrahim Kanaan told al-Joumhouria newspaper published Saturday.

It would be the fourth such meeting between MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform and other blocs.

Aoun's lawmakers have previously held talks with members of Speaker Nabih Berri's Development and Liberation bloc, al-Mustaqbal and the Phalange.

Change and Reform lawmaker Kanaan told al-Joumhouria that such meetings have “become a necessity to urge everyone to stick to Lebanon’s principles at this dangerous stage.”

He said the agenda of the meeting with the National Struggle Front of MP Walid Jumblat includes the parliamentary crisis and the activation of the executive authority either through the resigned government or through the formation of a new cabinet.

The meeting would also deal with the presidential elections next year. “They should be held on time out of our rejection for vacuum or the extension” of President Michel Suleiman's term, Kanaan said.