Berri Vows to Exert All Efforts to Resolve Baabda Crisis

Speaker Nabih Berri has vowed to exert all efforts to resolve the presidential deadlock at the national dialogue table on Wednesday before moving to any other item on the agenda.

“I will exert all efforts to reach a result" on the Baabda Palace crisis, local dailies quoted Berri as saying.

But the speaker warned in remarks to his visitors that he will move to other times on the agenda if the rival leaders failed to reach an agreement on the deadlock.

The vacuum at Baabda Palace since May 2014 has caused the parliament's paralysis and disputes among cabinet members.

The growing crises compelled Berri to invite Prime Minister Tammam Salam and 15 other heads of parliamentary blocs for a dialogue. Each official will also be accompanied by an assistant.

Salam's sources hoped in remarks to al-Joumhouria daily that the dialogue would pave way for a serious discussion to “Lebanonize” the country's problems.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora hoped that the all-party talks would succeed.

He stressed that his priority was to resolve the presidential crisis.

“When we elect a president, then all other issues would be resolved,” he told As Safir daily.

The head of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, hoped that the remaining parties would attend the dialogue with the same “spirit of seriousness and responsibility as Hizbullah.”

Sources close to Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh also told As Safir that the success of the dialogue hinges on the intentions of the conferees.

Another dialogue participant, Lebanese Democratic Party chief lawmaker Talal Arslan said he would ask for turning the dialogue into a conference that would resolve all crises confronting Lebanon “because this regime has collapsed.”

Change and Reform MP Ibrahim Kanaan told As Safir that the priority of the bloc, which will be represented by its leader lawmaker Michel Aoun, is to have a fair electoral law that would lead to the election of a new president.

Sejaan Qazzi, the minister of the Kataeb, which will be represented by the party leader MP Sami Gemayel, said any agreement on the agenda's items other than the presidency doesn't have a value.

“According to the Constitution, we should first strike a deal on the presidential crisis,” he told the daily.

Tashnag Party leader MP Hagop Pakradounian also said that his priority was the election of a new head of state.

G.K.

D.A.