Jumblat Meets Berri: We Agreed to Attend Dialogue, Didn't Discuss Presidential Vote

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat announced Sunday that he and Speaker Nabih Berri will take part in Monday's national dialogue session at the Baabda Palace.

“We thoroughly discussed the Arab and regional developments,” Jumblat said after meeting Berri at the speaker's headquarters in Ain al-Tineh. He was accompanied by Health Minister Wael Abou Faour.

“We agreed to attend tomorrow's dialogue session, as usual, in order to continue the discussions that we had started, without limiting the debate to a certain topic,” Jumblat told reporters after the talks.

“Things are open to all possibilities, especially that we have seen how terrorism is striking from all sides,” the PSP leader added.

And as Jumblat noted that he did not discuss the issue of the presidential election with Berri, he announced that they agreed to attend national dialogue Monday in Baabda at the invitation of President Michel Suleiman.

Commenting on the deadly attacks on the army and the Internal Security Forces in Arsal and Tripoli, Jumblat said: “May God have mercy on the souls of the martyrs of the army and the ISF in Arsal and Tripoli.”

He also called for “the implementation of the security plan in order to eradicate terrorism, which is threatening everyone and is not differentiating between one person and another.”

Several political forces have announced their boycott of Monday's dialogue session in Baabda.

Hizbullah, the Marada Movement, the Syrian Social National Party and the Lebanese Democratic Party have officially announced that they will not participate in the all-party talks.

The Lebanese Forces is also inclined to declare its boycott of the dialogue session.

Sources close to Suleiman told An Nahar newspaper in remarks published Sunday that “any decision to postpone the national dialogue session will be based on the stances of the parties.”

The rift increased recently between Suleiman and Hizbullah after the president described the so-called people-army-resistance formula as "wooden", or outdated, during a speech at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) in February.

Suleiman's comments angered Hizbullah, which accused him of not being able to differentiate between “what's golden and what's wooden."

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah lashed out anew at Suleiman in a televised speech on Saturday without naming him, hinting that the party was inclined to boycott the dialogue session.