Berri: Decision on Syria Can be Modified to Avert Negative Repercussions
Speaker Nabih Berri stated that the Arab League decision on Syria can be modified in order to avoid any negative repercussions it may create.
He told al-Joumhouriya newspaper in remarks published on Monday that he fears that Lebanon may incur the consequences of the Arab League’s decision to suspend Syria’s membership.
Addressing local developments, he said that President Michel Suleiman is working seriously on resuming the national dialogue.
He revealed that he reached an agreement with him that would help provide the necessary circumstances to issue calls for dialogue.
Berri stressed that the new dialogue that would be launched will not eliminate the decisions of the dialogue that was first held in 2006.
“The new round of talks should decide the country’s future before someone else decides it for us,” the speaker explained.
It should focus on keeping Lebanon away from the developments in the Arab world, he continued.
Berri had declared on Sunday that only Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz was capable of pressing for a reconciliation between the Syrian regime and its opponents.
“After all that has happened, and given what is happening now, I do not see anyone but you – other than God – capable of pushing for a reconciliation, not only among the Syrians, but also among the Arabs,” he said in a briefly-worded cable he sent to the Saudi monarch.
The Arab League's foreign ministers at a meeting in Cairo on Saturday voted 18-22 to suspend Syria with effect from November 16 over its failure to comply with an agreement to end its crackdown on protests, which according to the United Nations have left at 3,500 people dead since mid-March.
Syria, Yemen and Lebanon voted against the measure while Iraq abstained.
The foreign ministers recommended the withdrawal of Arab envoys from Damascus and agreed on sanctions, while inviting "all currents in the Syrian opposition" to meet at its Cairo headquarters in Cairo to map out a transition.
It said the suspension would remain in place until President Bashar Assad implements the November 2 accord which his government signed, in which Damascus was to release detainees, withdraw the army from urban areas, allow free movement for observers and media, and negotiate with the opposition.
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