Berri Says Resistance 'Red Line,' Ready to Propose Policy Statement Solution
Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the resistance is a red line but was ready to make proposals to resolve the dispute on the government's policy statement on condition that the rival parties expressed readiness to agree on a solution on the resistance clause.
Several local dailies quoted Berri as saying on Monday that he would never give up on mentioning the resistance in the policy statement.
“The resistance is a red line entrenched in the land that was liberated through sacrifices,” the speaker, who is also the head of the Amal movement allied with Hizbullah, said about the liberation of the South.
The members of a ministerial committee tasked with drafting the policy statement have been bickering on whether to include a clause on the resistance in the blueprint.
President Michel Suleiman and the March 14 alliance want to drop it but the Hizbullah-led March 8 camp is holding onto it to legitimize Hizbullah’s armed resistance against Israel.
The newspapers said, however, Berri told his visitors that the parties opposing the clause should live for a few days in the South, particularly in areas near the border with Israel, “and then give their opinion, which would be more pragmatic and objective.”
“There are solutions that guarantee to satisfy all parties in the policy statement, but they can't be proposed amid the political tension that renewed lately over certain stances,” he reportedly said.
Berri was referring to the tension between Suleiman and Hizbullah that reached unprecedented levels over the weekend when the president said Lebanese parties should not hold onto inflexible equations that hinder the adoption of the new government's policy statement.
His remark drew a sharp retort from Hizbullah, which said the president needed “specialized care.”
Berri said that he would make proposals to resolve the tension on the resistance clause if there were intentions in that regard. “But any solution would not come at the expense of the resistance.”
An Nahar daily said Monday that Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, a centrist, held telephone conversations with Berri and al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri to resolve the policy statement deadlock.
But the newspaper said that there was still no positive atmosphere in that regard and expected the representatives of Hizbullah and Amal - Ministers Mohammed Fneish and Ali Hassan Khalil - in the ministerial committee to take escalatory measures during the meeting on Monday to ask for discussions on clauses that have been previously approved by its members.
Al-Joumhouria also reported Monday that Prime Minister Tammam Salam met over the weekend with envoys sent by Berri, Jumblat and several other personalities.
The daily quoted the officials who visited Salam as saying that the PM had stressed the importance of preserving the agreement that led to the formation of his 24-member cabinet.
He reportedly said that the policy statement forms the basic part of the work of the government which ends with the presidential elections.
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