Berri says 'would have been better' for opposition to respond to France call for dialogue

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has criticized those rejecting a Lebanese dialogue proposed by France, his circles told An-Nahar newspaper, in remarks published Monday.

The sources quoted Berri as saying that it would have been better for the opposition MPs to respond to French envoy Jean Yves Le Drian's call for a dialogue, instead of "betting on other options."

Le Drian is scheduled to return to Lebanon in September after he had proposed on his last visit to Lebanon to invite all those taking part in the process of electing a president to a meeting in September to achieve a consensus on the challenges and on the priority projects the future president will have to carry out, and consequently the qualities necessary for tackling them.

Thirty one opposition MPs said in a joint statement last week that "any dialogue with Hezbollah would be futile" and that dialogue should only be held after a president is elected.

The dialogue should be about "the fate of illegal weapons" and "limiting foreign and internal security to the state represented by the army and security agencies," the opposition MPs said.