Report: Dialogue Sessions Doomed, FPM Adamant on Aoun's Presidency
As eyes gaze at Wednesday's dialogue session that is set to bring rival politicians together to discuss pressing issues, mainly the presidential deadlock, sources of the March 8 alliance have dimmed the hopes on its outcome as they say they are adamant to elect MP Michel Aoun “and no other,” or hold early parliamentary elections.
Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement head to the dialogue session with a “unified stance” to either consensually elect the Change and Reform bloc chief, Aoun, as head of the state or kick off parliamentary elections that will later elect a president, well informed March 8 sources told Asharq al-Awsat daily.
The sources stressed that “any other talks on a consensual candidate other than Aoun will be strictly unacceptable by Hizbullah and the FPM.”
Speaker Nabih Berri, who also heads the AMAL movement, called for the session which is limited to Prime Minister Tammam Salam and the heads of parliamentary blocs.
Berri has reiterated that the presidential deadlock was the first item on the agenda of the dialogue, and that he would then move to another item if the rival parties failed to agree on it.
The interlocutors are expected to discuss ways to end the vacuum at Baabda Palace, the resumption of the work of parliament and the cabinet, a new electoral draft-law, legislation allowing Lebanese expats to obtain the nationality, administrative decentralization and ways to support the army and the Internal Security Forces.
Only the Lebanese Forces announced it would boycott the talks.
On the other hand, al-Akhbar daily said that head of al-Mustaqbal bloc Fouad Saniora rejects the decision of the movement’s leader, Saad Hariri, to take part in the dialogue, preferring that conditions are set beforehand mainly on the priority to elect a president before stepping in.
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Source: Naharnet
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