Resistance Deadlock Unresolved as Both Sides Exchange Concession Accusations
High-level contacts between the rival March 8 and 14 alliances failed to end the deadlock on the government's policy statement as both sides accused each other of not making enough concessions, local dailies reported Wednesday.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper said that top officials from both camps tried on Tuesday in vain to find an exit to the impasse, which lies on the resistance clause.
“I don't know if the meeting of the committee (tasked with drafting the policy statement) would be able to reach positive results on Friday,” a member of the committee told An Nahar.
“There are no initiatives among the different parties or efforts to bridge the gap,” the minister, who was not named, said.
The committee will hold its ninth meeting on Friday but it has failed to narrow differences on the resistance clause after March 14 stressed that the resistance should be placed under the authority of the Lebanese state.
The Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance, on the other hand, rejected this demand, wanting to legitimize the party's armed resistance against Israel.
Hizbullah officials, who were not identified, told al-Joumhouria that the party holds onto the “resistance” in the policy statement without linking it to any factor that limits its independence to act.
They said that March 8 members of the committee have made a concession by giving up their demand to include the “army-people-resistance” equation in the statement.
But March 14 officials, snapped back by saying, that the alliance has, in its turn, given up a clause calling for the withdrawal of Hizbullah fighters from Syria.
Despite the deadlock, An Nahar said that Speaker Nabih Berri could hold a meeting with Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat, a centrist, to find a solution.
In remarks published on Monday, Berri, whose Amal movement is part of the March 8 alliance, said that the resistance is a red line but was ready to make proposals to resolve the dispute on the policy statement on condition that the rival parties expressed readiness to agree on a solution on the resistance clause.
An Nahar on Wednesday quoted him as saying that he would be lenient if he found that the March 14 camp was being lenient as well.
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