Suleiman Mulls to Invite for National Dialogue with Radical Changes

President Michel Suleiman is mulling to invite Lebanese leaders to all-party talks at Baabda palace next month as presidential sources said that the dialogue table could witness radical changes.

The sources told As Safir daily published Saturday that some personalities would be left out while the dialogue would witness new faces.

They stressed that the national dialogue’s agenda is limited to the country’s defense strategy but Suleiman does not mind to include other topics upon the request of the political parties.

The president is planning to throw an Iftar banquet on August 11 as a foundation for the national dialogue invitation that he plans to make, As Safir said.

But March 14 MP Butros Harb reiterated that the opposition rejects to sit at the dialogue table with the new parliamentary majority “to waste time.”

The conferees should discuss the issue of Hizbullah’s arms and implement previous agreements reached at the dialogue such as disarmament of Palestinians outside the camps, the demarcation of the border with Syria and the commitment to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Harb told Voice of Lebanon radio station (100.5).

Suleiman can’t launch the dialogue on the same foundations of the previous all-party talks, he said. The president should review the agenda because “we don’t accept for the talks to be postponed every month,” Harb added.