Suleiman Hints No Consensus on Dialogue, Says STL Funding Doesn’t Annul Reservations
President Michel Suleiman stressed that the national dialogue will be held at Baabda palace but did not give any timeframe “because the two sides of dialogue haven’t yet reached consensus.”
In an interview with el-Shark daily published on Tuesday, Suleiman said that the only item on the dialogue’s agenda is the national defense strategy.
Suleiman said that if any participant suggested discussing any issue linked to the strategy as a “national force” and the other conferees accepted, then the issue would be put on the agenda of the all-party talks.
Asked about the criticism of the March 14-led opposition of a government decision to scrap entry visas for Iranians, the president told his interviewer that the visa hasn’t been cancelled. Iranians just like the Turks can now get it upon their arrival at the Beirut airport.
Suleiman described the cabinet’s work as “acceptable” and said it needs to be more “productive.”
The issue of the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is “being studied” away from the media glare, he told el-Shark, hoping that the cabinet would pay its share of the court that is set to try the suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination.
“Lebanon is committed to it,” Suleiman said, adding however that “the funding does not annul some reservations on the tribunal.”
On the situation in Syria, the Lebanese president said the neighboring country was heading towards democracy.
He hoped that the transition would not have a human cost. “Democracy would eventually produce a rotation of power.”
Asked about the recent controversy that erupted over Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s remarks on Hizbullah’s arms and the situation in Syria, Suleiman said the prelate does not have fears on Lebanon’s Christians.
Al-Rahi is worried over the fate of the Christians in the East because they look at Lebanon as their Christian sanctuary, he added.
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