Resistance Deadlock Unresolved as Both Sides Exchange Concession Accusations
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
High-level contacts between the rival March 8 and 14 alliances failed to end the deadlock on the government's policy statement as both sides accused each other of not making enough concessions, local dailies reported Wednesday.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper said that top officials from both camps tried on Tuesday in vain to find an exit to the impasse, which lies on the resistance clause.
“I don't know if the meeting of the committee (tasked with drafting the policy statement) would be able to reach positive results on Friday,” a member of the committee told An Nahar.
“There are no initiatives among the different parties or efforts to bridge the gap,” the minister, who was not named, said.
The committee will hold its ninth meeting on Friday but it has failed to narrow differences on the resistance clause after March 14 stressed that the resistance should be placed under the authority of the Lebanese state.
The Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance, on the other hand, rejected this demand, wanting to legitimize the party's armed resistance against Israel.
Hizbullah officials, who were not identified, told al-Joumhouria that the party holds onto the “resistance” in the policy statement without linking it to any factor that limits its independence to act.
They said that March 8 members of the committee have made a concession by giving up their demand to include the “army-people-resistance” equation in the statement.
But March 14 officials, snapped back by saying, that the alliance has, in its turn, given up a clause calling for the withdrawal of Hizbullah fighters from Syria.
Despite the deadlock, An Nahar said that Speaker Nabih Berri could hold a meeting with Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat, a centrist, to find a solution.
In remarks published on Monday, Berri, whose Amal movement is part of the March 8 alliance, said that the resistance is a red line but was ready to make proposals to resolve the dispute on the policy statement on condition that the rival parties expressed readiness to agree on a solution on the resistance clause.
An Nahar on Wednesday quoted him as saying that he would be lenient if he found that the March 14 camp was being lenient as well.
05 March 2014, 08:49
47
the problem at hand is not whether we should have a resistance or not, as with neighbors like Israel and Syria (who love us too much that they want a piece of us each) we have to be very wary and awake.
However, hizbushaitan is not a resistance! they are a copy of the Iranian guard in iran, and as they do in iran (control and manage the state) they want to do in Lebanon.
but they fail to note that Lebanon is not made of shia only! all other confessions are against what hizbushaitan is doing in the name of shia.
05 March 2014, 08:50
54
that is a given, thus hizbushaitan is now preparing an all out extermination war on the Palestinian camps to please their best ally: Israel.
05 March 2014, 09:03
46
Part 1 - Man-ooshi...finally someone who speaks some sense. The only way Lebanon will move forward is for the Lebanese state to assert its authority over all the country and for arms to be in the hands of the Lebanese army only. The resistance showed its true colours when it used its arms internally and took over downtown Beirut in May 2008. It also showed its true allegiance is not to Lebanon, but to its masters in Damascus and Tehran when it started sending fighters to Syria. The resistance should be disbanded or put under Lebanese government control (I believe that it is time to end Nasrallah and Qaouk's little fiefdom, which is all it really is).
05 March 2014, 09:35
55
Hariri should know better than any one ells that the Iranian militia can not be trusted. They are Assad's dogs that is why he kept them armed and that is why they are fighting in Syria to keep him in power.
05 March 2014, 09:37
45
--karim_m2---, The terrorist militia is destroying Lebanon, they need to go back to Iran.
05 March 2014, 09:44
52
HizbIran wants concessions on lebanese sovereignty...
They want their army, their intelligence, their telecoms, they want to control the borders, the airport, the port, etc...
They know their force and control already the country...
05 March 2014, 10:05
54
Geagea is right, was right, and will always be right. Hariri was easily fooled by these terrorists calling themselves resistance.
05 March 2014, 17:24
31
One picture confirms what the world long since knew, that we Lebanese cannot rule ourselves by ourselves. If the official statement is taking this long, then what will happen when we're asked to start tapping our oil? I hate to think of it, wallah!!
