Berri's Adviser Says No Tensions with FPM

Speaker Nabih Berri's adviser Ali Hamdan denied Sunday the presence of any tensions between the parliament speaker and the Free Patriotic Movement, stressing that Berri is always ready to facilitate dialogue among the Lebanese.

“Speaker Berri is always ready to facilitate dialogue among the Lebanese,” Hamdan said in an interview with Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

“Any new call for dialogue will have new rules, because Speaker Berri really wants dialogue to be productive,” Hamdan added.

“Speaker Berri's ambition is to resolve the crisis, not to manage it,” the adviser went on to say, emphasizing that “there are no tensions between Speaker Berri and the FPM.”

The latest national dialogue session last Monday had witnessed an argument between Berri and FPM chief Jebran Bassil, after which the speaker suspended the national dialogue meetings.

Berri's decision followed a threat from Bassil on suspending the FPM's participation in the all-party talks.

The FPM, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings over accusations that other parties in the country are not respecting the National Pact.

The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on Christian-Muslim partnership.

The FPM's boycott of cabinet meetings was initially linked to the thorny issue of military and security appointments. The movement has long voiced reservations over the government's decision-taking mechanism in the absence of a president.

Addressing Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Bassil has recently said that “the son of late PM Saeb Salam must pay great attention when he says that the government is respecting the National Pact when it convenes in the presence of ministers representing only six percent of a main component of the country (Christians).”

Bassil has also warned that the country might be soon plunged into a “political system crisis” if the other parties do not heed the FPM's demands regarding Muslim-Christian “partnership.”

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh hit back at Bassil on Monday, saying Marada and the other Christian parties in the cabinet “represent a lot more than six percent.”