Berri Says Proposal on Policy Statement Includes Defense of Natural Resources
Speaker Nabih Berri has refused to reveal the details of a proposal made with Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat to resolve the resistance deadlock in the policy statement but stressed that the clause included Israeli attacks on Lebanon's natural resources.
Berri and Jumblat, a centrist and the head of the National Struggle Front parliamentary bloc, have made a joint proposal that will be discussed on Tuesday during the tenth meeting of a seven-member committee tasked with drafting the policy statement of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet.
In remarks to al-Akhbar daily, Berri stressed that the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance held onto the word “resistance” for being an essential aspect of Lebanon's rights to confront Israel.
But he said that the proposal does not only lie on consolidating the role of the resistance in the military and security aspects.
“It also includes any Israeli aggression on Lebanon's resources … in particular oil and water that the resistance and the Lebanese should defend,” Berri, who is also the head of the Amal movement allied with Hizbullah, said.
Reports said the joint proposal stemmed from a statement made by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil at the meeting of the Arab Foreign Ministers held in Cairo on Sunday.
The closing statement of the meeting called for "the right of Lebanon and the Lebanese to liberate and recover the Shebaa Farms, the Kfarshouba Hills and the Lebanese part of the Ghajar village, and to resist any Israeli aggression or occupation through the legitimate means."
Bassil proposed it after coordinating with President Michel Suleiman and Salam.
Officials expressed hope on Tuesday that the ministerial committee would approve the proposal of Berri and Jumblat as the deadline for agreeing on the blueprint approaches.
Berri warned in his remarks to al-Akhbar that the government would be considered resigned if the committee failed to draft the policy statement by March 17, when the one-month deadline set by the Constitution to refer the blueprint to parliament for a vote of confidence ends.
“I would then contact the president and ask him under article 64 (of the Constitution) to call for binding parliamentary consultations to name a new prime minister given that the current cabinet becomes a caretaker government,” he said.
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