Berri Says Dialogue Can 'Achieve a Lot', Not against Protest Movement

Speaker Nabih Berri announced Sunday that the national dialogue sessions that he is sponsoring could reach solutions to the country's problems if the conferees have “honest intentions,” stressing that his initiative is not aimed at “wasting time” or confronting the country's growing protest movement.

“As Lebanese who have accepted to sit around the dialogue table, we should draw lessons from the dialogue that is taking place among world powers in New York,” said Berri in a statement, referring to the flurry of diplomatic activity that is accompanying the annual U.N. General Assembly.

“It is unacceptable for the Lebanese to achieve nothing from their dialogue as the entire world seeks to reach settlements despite its disputes and rifts,” he added.

He called on the Lebanese parties to “show the world that they are capable of running their own affairs and crossing their constitutional junctures through putting their country's interest and their civil peace before any other interest.”

Addressing the critics of the national dialogue meetings, the parliament speaker said “mistaken are those who think that the dialogue table is aimed at wasting time or is directed against the civil society protest movement.”

“The dialogue table is aimed at making use of time, which will not be in Lebanon's favor if we do not properly interpret the rapid developments that are taking place in the region and the world,” Berri warned.

“The dialogue table can achieve a lot if the conferees have honest intentions and I believe that all parties have honest intentions aimed at rescuing Lebanon,” the speaker added.

Civil society protesters angry over a lack of basic services and an unprecedented garbage crisis have organized demonstrations outside the dialogue venue in downtown Beirut to slam a political class they see as corrupt and incompetent.

Berri had called for the dialogue among the main political parties to discuss a stalemate that has frozen government institutions for months.

The protest movement began in mid-July as pungent piles of garbage built up in Beirut and its environs after the closure of the country's largest landfill in Naameh.

But it has since grown to represent broader frustrations that cut across sectarian and partisan lines, including electricity and water shortages, and endemic corruption among the political elite. Demonstrations in the capital grew from several dozen protesters to thousands, peaking when tens of thousands descended on Martyrs' Square on August 29.

Parliament has extended its own mandate twice since the last elections in 2009. Political rivalries have paralyzed the cabinet, formed in early 2014 on a caretaker basis, and the parliament has been so divided that it has failed more than 20 times to elect a president since Michel Suleiman's term expired in May 2014.

Berri has said his call for dialogue is an attempt to jump-start the work of these institutions.

Y.R.