Suleiman Says to Call for Mid-June National Dialogue, Urges March 14 to Heed Call without Preconditions
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
President Michel Suleiman on Thursday announced that he will call for a national dialogue conference to be held in the second week of June, urging the March 14 forces to heed his call without linking it to the issue of forming a new government.
“Of course I will call for dialogue and I have already voiced several calls and informed the leaders of the topics: the defense strategy concerning when and how the Resistance's arms must be used; the implementation of the previous resolutions as to removing Palestinian arms outside camps and organizing them inside camps; and the removal of weapons from Lebanese cities and towns,” said Suleiman in an interview on LBC.
“In the next few days, I will send everyone a written letter calling for dialogue to be held in the second week of June, and those who have certain conditions must announce them during the first session of dialogue,” the president added.
Earlier on Thursday, the March 14 forces called for forming a “neutral, salvation government,” revealing that they will “very soon submit an initiative” to Suleiman that is “aimed at confronting the attempt to ruin Lebanon.”
In a statement issued after an emergency meeting in the wake of the latest unrest in the country, the March 14 forces noted that “confronting the conspiracy of ruining Lebanon and the collapse of its state requires the resignation of the government and the formation of a government of civil peace, a neutral salvation government that would help the president relaunch dialogue over arms -- all arms -- implement the national dialogue table's resolutions and oversee free elections.”
Suleiman said that “if any side has objections against the government, it must voice them at the dialogue table and these two things must not be mixed up.”
“I hope March 14 will heed the call without preconditions,” he added.
Suleiman noted that “the government can only be toppled in parliament or through the resignation of its premier.”
“Let us stay within the democratic system,” he went on to say.
The president stressed that “dialogue has always been the solution to any problem throughout our history, from 1943 until now.”
“The leaders of this country must quickly heed my call for resuming dialogue or, God forbid, they will find themselves compelled to attend dialogue under duress,” Suleiman warned.
Asked about the letter he recently received from Saudi King Abdullah about the tense situation in Lebanon, Suleiman said “the efforts of the presidency and the government are the biggest answer to the Saudi king's letter concerning sparing Lebanon the repercussions of the Syrian crisis.”
Asked about the government’s so-called “self-disassociation policy” towards the Syrian crisis, Suleiman said: “We will definitely not change the self-disassociation policy, which is the best stance. The call for positive neutralism dates back to 40 years ago and we have achieved it today.”
Suleiman stressed that the Lebanese state will not allow the creation of “buffer zones” on Lebanese territory aimed at aiding the armed Syrian opposition in its fight against President Bashar Assad’s regime.
“No one has asked us to do so and this issue is harmful to Syria,” said the president.
Commenting on the latest reports about the presence of al-Qaida and other terror organizations in the country, Suleiman stressed that “Lebanon is not a base for al-Qaida or for trafficking weapons to Syria.”
“I am not with arming the rebels from Lebanon and the army is raiding any place suspected of being a base for fighters. Lebanon will not be a launchpad for harming Syria or any Arab country,” the president said.
He also noted that “no one is smuggling money to the regime like the Syrian opposition has claimed.”
Commenting on the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Suleiman said: “We will heed the needs of the Syrian refugees and offer them all care in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
On the recent travel warnings issued by the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, Suleiman said “the Arab (Gulf) stance is not political and the Arab brothers have not left Lebanon and they know that the security problems are not dangerous.”
He revealed that he “will seek to visit Arab countries concerned with the Lebanese situations.”
“I will also discuss the regional situations and I may make many tours,” he added.
Suleiman reassured that “war (in Syria) has not and will not spill over to Lebanon and the ongoing repercussions have no political prospect and the parties do not want to change the Taef Accord.”
“Any incident caused by the turbulence will be addressed,” he said.
He noted that “security has been fine over the past four years and today the repercussions of the Syrian crisis are inevitable but can be easily resolved.”
“The future of Lebanon is secure and promising but everyone must show care and not be dragged into political disputes and politicians must not interfere in the Syrian crisis and must ask their supporters not to interfere,” the president urged.
On the issue of Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria, Suleiman said: “According to the available information, the abductees are in good health and they will be freed.”
“No one in Syria will benefit from this unwarranted operation,” he said.
The president’s interview follows the weekend killing of two clerics at an army checkpoint in Akkar, a mainly Sunni Muslim region whose inhabitants are hostile to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The killings ignited street battles in the capital Beirut overnight Sunday-Monday that left two people dead and 18 wounded.
On Wednesday, multiple violent incidents took place in several areas of the capital, which officials said were non-political in nature.
They included a shootout in the Caracas neighborhood in west Beirut, which left two people dead and six police and army troops injured.
Late last week, the Qatari, Emirati, Bahraini and Kuwaiti authorities issued warnings against travel to Lebanon.
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24 May 2012, 22:00
Suleiman: I am not with arming the rebels from Lebanon and the army is raiding any place suspected of being a base for fighters. Lebanon will not be a launchpad for harming Syria or any Arab country.
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24 May 2012, 21:51
Suleiman: According to the available information, the abductees are in good health and they will be freed and no one in Syria will benefit from this unwarranted operation.
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24 May 2012, 21:51
Suleiman: The future of Lebanon is secure and promising but everyone must show care and not be dragged into political disputes and politicians must not interfere in the Syrian crisis and must ask their supporters not to interfere.
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24 May 2012, 21:50
Suleiman: Security has been fine over the past four years and today the repercussions of the Syrian crisis are inevitable but can be easily resolved.
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24 May 2012, 21:49
Suleiman: War (in Syria) has not and will not spill over to Lebanon and the ongoing repercussions have no political prospect and the parties do not want to change the Taef Accord. Any incident caused by the turbulence will be addressed.
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24 May 2012, 21:48
Suleiman: I will seek to visit Arab countries concerned with the Lebanese situations and I will also discuss the regional situations and I may make many tours.
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24 May 2012, 21:48
Suleiman: The Arab (Gulf) stance is not political and the Arab brothers have not left Lebanon and they know that the security problems are not dangerous.
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24 May 2012, 21:47
Suleiman: We will heed the needs of the Syrian refugees and offer them all care in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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24 May 2012, 21:46
Suleiman: Lebanon is not a base for al-Qaida or for trafficking weapons to Syria and no one is smuggling money to the regime like the Syrian opposition has claimed.
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24 May 2012, 21:45
Suleiman: We will not allow the creation of Syrian buffer zones and no one has asked us to do so and this issue is harmful to Syria.
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24 May 2012, 21:44
Suleiman: If there is a discrepancy between the Arabs and Iran, Lebanon must seek to bridge differences between them.
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24 May 2012, 21:44
Suleiman: We will definitely not change the self-disassociation policy, which is the best stance. The call for positive neutralism dates back to 40 years ago and we have achieved it today.
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24 May 2012, 21:43
Suleiman: Dialogue has always been the solution to any problem throughout our history, from 1943 until now, and the leaders of this country must quickly heed my call for resuming dialogue or, God forbid, they will find themselves compelled to attend dialogue under duress.
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24 May 2012, 21:41
Suleiman: The government can only be toppled in parliament or through the resignation of its premier, so let us stay within the democratic system.
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24 May 2012, 21:40
Suleiman: If any side has objections against the government, it must voice them at the dialogue table and these two things must not be mixed up and I hope March 14 will heed the call without preconditions.
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24 May 2012, 21:39
Suleiman: In the next few days, I will send everyone a written letter calling for dialogue to be held in the second week of June, and those who have certain conditions must announce them during the first session.
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24 May 2012, 21:37
Suleiman: Of course I will call for dialogue and I have voiced several calls and informed the leaders of the topics: the defense strategy concerning when and how the Resistance's arms must be used; the implementation of the previous resolutions as to removing Palestinian weapons outside camps and organizing them inside camps; and the removal of weapons from Lebanese cities and towns.
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24 May 2012, 21:36
Suleiman: The efforts of the presidency and the government are the biggest answer to the Saudi king's letter concerning sparing Lebanon the repercussions of the Syrian crisis.
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24 May 2012, 21:35
President Michel Suleiman in an interview on LBC: I don't believe that the Arab Spring has shaken stability, but Lebanon has been affected by the Syrian situation.
24 May 2012, 23:00
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All this disgusts me, I have been willing to write but after reeading what the other contributors write here, I am ashamed.
I grew up in West Africa because of the Lebanese Civil War, and am so afraid my kids will also miss growing up in this beautiful country, that I so much love, tears fall as I hear any patriotic song.
I just hope and pray that they will find the decency to wake up and avert another war, we are tired.
I wish all these leaders starting from Aoun to Gaegae to Hariri would just fuck off and leave us alone
24 May 2012, 23:25
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i could not agree more with anonymetexasusa moreover if we all agree that the Lebanese army is the protector of Lebanon and it's borders why do we need the resistant and it's weapons . the Lebanese army is the pride of Lebanon and guarantees our freedom . please don't tell me it is not strong enough to face the enemy of Lebanon (this argument is a hog wash and it doesn't stand a reason with the true Lebanese )because no one with a sense of pride will accept armed groups not under the control of the state regardless of they are .
25 May 2012, 03:43
51
Out of all the armed groups in lebanon, hezballah is by far the most responsible one. Besides on may 7th, at least 5 parties were involved and they are hezballah, amal, mustakbal, psp, ssnp. In beirut, the fighting was between amal and mustakbal, in the mountain between hezballah and psp and in the north mustakbal vs ssnp. Jumblatt was the main person responsible for the may 7th events. So stop using that day as an excuse to why you think hezballah should be disarmed. In case you have forgotten, much pf the harm caused on that day was caused by stones, sticks bottlesand other such "weapons". Every political party in lebanon has a militia. Thank god hezballah is the strongest of them. I cant imagine how it would be if LF or kataeb were the strongest. Muslims and orthodox would probably be behaded and their true colours would re-appear after trying to sound politically correct for all the money they get from the oil dictators :)
25 May 2012, 07:01
22
In May 2008 it was a lot of sticks and stones because others, other than Hizshitan did not have any weapons of significance NOW EVERYONE has something of significance in their closets WHY? because of what the Syrian/Iranian Thugs Hizbshitan on that day did and proved to the whole of Lebanon their true colours. HIZBSHITAN USED THEIR WEAPONS INTERNALLY PERIOD!!! I will not forget how they roamed the country over the army and the ISF and the people with IMPUNITY... MR president ask Hizbshitan its time to PUT the DEFENCE IN GOVERNMENT's HANDS (ARMY&ISF = ALL Lebanese DEFENCE REPRESENTATIVE)
25 May 2012, 08:39
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lebcan, on the contrary, the sticks and stones i was referring to the respective supporters of these groups. Dont lie! All parties have and had militias in lebanon, including in 2008. On may 7 all parties involved had weapons.In tripoli, there is weapons used almost daily by mustakbal. LF and kateb constantly dared hezballah supporters to have hezballah "invade" their areas to massacre them. Everyone is and was armed, it just happens that hezballah is the strongest so stop whining, its not cute, your not a victim. LF and kateb and psp and others had weapons long before hezballah even existed and they did 1 billion times worse things with them. And they still have weapons left, just not enough to challenge hezballah. You will remain a looser as long as you are a hypocrite and as long as you pretend to be a victim when your not. Your just a jealous loser who is hiding behind march 14 to disguise the fascism and terrorism your LF stands for.
25 May 2012, 18:23
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@Jesuswasaprophet, Jesus is the Son of God. You are just as fictional with your account of May 7 as you are about Jesus in your Monicer.
Yes people have guns in Lebanon who are not Hezbollah. But Hezbollah is an extenstion of the IRG, trained in Iran, clothed in Israeli army uniforms, funded with drug and diamond smuggling funds. It is an organized fighting force. There is no parity between that at bird hunters.
History is history, stop with your revisionist lies. Everyone knows what happened and who it happened to. You look rather foolish attempting to assert otherwise.
25 May 2012, 04:10
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You must be a graduate of HEZB University. They do not teach such analysis in regular Universities..... your handle name must be the title of your thesis.
25 May 2012, 06:15
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hizbushaitan used a bogus issue to reach the doha agreement. why do I say bogus about their telecommunication network? because israel and the US are listening to each and every thing they are planning before they even do it.
they did the same again to topple the previous cabinet, and they have been arming small factions in the north as well as distributing weapons to fpm(who have sold mst of them).
they are not about a peacefull country, they are about hegemony.
stop being mislead.
25 May 2012, 07:34
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There is no beneficial use for weapons in the hands of Hassan Plazma and his mafia.
I thought the President knew better than making such preposterous statement as defense strategy and use of illegal weapons
25 May 2012, 10:41
12
idiot FT
what is hizbushaitan using for computers and networks and switches and firewalls,... they all have back doors to which israel and the US connect.
if you do nt understand technologies, please do not comment...
25 May 2012, 17:03
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if anyone wants to know what s in your computer they can FT.. never heard of hackers? if they can penetrate sites like cia i guess your computer is not as protected...
25 May 2012, 11:12
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the principal reason for division are the weapons of the iranian militia... a dialogue should include that otherwise it s useless!
25 May 2012, 11:46
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I am with the 'dialogue', let us kill each other with 'words' on
a 'round' table away much better then on ground with guns...
However, 'dialogue' is like the dialogue round table; a closed circuit with no end results but the main issue here, it eases up the street ;)
25 May 2012, 18:16
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Suliman makes this call every so often just to see who will show up. Participants show up in an effort to put on a show of the relevance of Suliman. This is more testiment to the fact that Suliman has no relevance at all. Otherwise, he would not have to sponsor these shows every so often to prove that he is relevant.
At times like these when real events are happening that will change the reality of the lives of the Lebanese, there is no time for such fictional shows of relevancy at which nothing will happen.
The "Dialogue" that is more significant because it occurred than because it was aimed at producing real results is a useless exercise.
25 May 2012, 18:16
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Suliman makes this call every so often just to see who will show up. Participants show up in an effort to put on a show of the relevance of Suliman. This is more testiment to the fact that Suliman has no relevance at all. Otherwise, he would not have to sponsor these shows every so often to prove that he is relevant.
At times like these when real events are happening that will change the reality of the lives of the Lebanese, there is no time for such fictional shows of relevancy at which nothing will happen.
The "Dialogue" that is more significant because it occurred than because it was aimed at producing real results is a useless exercise.
25 May 2012, 20:59
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The president's call is a good one, but not for the right motives. We should first of all tackle the palestinians arms outside and INSIDE the camps. There is no organising them. I am sorry to say they have done more harm then good " resisting " Israel. They serve no cause right now exept harming the lebanese army if provided the opportunity. Who are they resisting right now? lets stop the bullshit. REMOVE ALL PALESTINIAN WEAPONS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE CAMPS. It is the first of all conditions that lebanese must put in front of the dialogue table. As much as i am against Hezbollah, they are still lebanese people, none lebanese should be disarmed first. Then we should disarm the fighters from syria. Then we must find a solution to Hezbollah which is their integration as a full regiment in the lebanese army that would be responsible for south Lebanon. Putting up a Hezbollah operative as commander in chief of this regiment but under the lebanese army.
25 May 2012, 21:02
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We cannot accept the palestinian weapons anymore. They are the most dangerous ones. We should quickly facilitate education for the youth that are inside the camps and provide them with support and access to visas so they can go work in Gulf countries to evolve. We must talk to the so called " arab brothers" which , if they care for their cause, will support them and accept them as foreign workers on their soil , just like any other culture. Keeping them locked up in camps with weapons ,living miserably and with 0 education, will only stear hate again against lebanese authorities. Let us at least unite against this heavy weight we have inside our country.
