Asiri Appeases Berri on Saudi Request to Blacklist Hizbullah

The Saudi Ambassador has informed Speaker Nabih Berri that a request made by Riyadh to the U.N. to blacklist Hizbullah and efforts to hold dialogue between al-Mustaqbal movement and Hizbullah were separate issues.

Local dailies on Wednesday quoted Berri as telling his visitors that he inquired Ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri about the request made last week by the Saudi diplomat to add Hizbullah to the U.N.'s sanctions list.

Asiri replied by saying “the two issues are not linked to each other. The stance of the Saudi representative at the U.N. is linked to the kingdom’s general policies in the region and is not related to Lebanon.”

Saudi Arabia rejects Hizbullah's involvement in Syria's war. The party has sent its fighters to the neighboring country to help Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops against rebels seeking to topple him.

There are fears that Berri's efforts to hold dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal would be affected by the Saudi stance.

But Asiri said following his talks with Berri that Riyadh backs any “agreement among all political forces to hold a thorough dialogue.”

The speaker told his visitors that he was still waiting for al-Mustaqbal to send him a copy of its proposal on the agenda of the dialogue.

“Some al-Mustaqbal officials traveled to follow-up the issue with the party leader, ex-PM Saad Hariri” in Paris, Berri said.

Hariri is expected to make an important announcement during a TV appearance on Thursday.

Berri said he had no information about it. “But it's impossible for him to say that he is against dialogue.”

In his remarks to his visitors, the speaker expressed reservations at the procrastination inside the parliamentary committee that is trying to reach a deal on an electoral draft-law.

He expressed similar views on Wednesday to MPs who visited him in Ain el-Tineh during his weekly meeting with lawmakers.

Berri has given the committee until the end of November to agree on the draft-law, saying he would call for parliamentary sessions to discuss all proposed electoral draft-laws if the MPs failed to strike a deal within a month.

Berri also expressed frustration at certain proposals made by MPs because he had said the agenda of the meetings is limited to the hybrid draft-law that combines the winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems.

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