Fatfat Denies March 14 to Hand Suleiman Memo on Stance from Next Dialogue Session

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc MP Ahmed Fatfat denied on Saturday that he is holding talks with March 14 national dialogue participants to get their signatures on a memo he seeks to hand over to President Michel Suleiman.

“We are seeking to get the signatures on a petition to denounce the Syrian violation along the Lebanese border,” Fatfat tolf the Central News Agency.

An Nahar newspaper reported that the memo aims at setting the opposition coalition’s stance from the national dialogue that is scheduled to be held at Suleiman’s summer residence in Beiteddine on Aug. 16 should the alliance decide to attend.

The president’s sources confirmed to An Nahar that Suleiman hasn’t yet received any final answer from the March 14 leaders.

Suleiman postponed the dialogue last month after the opposition tied its participation to a government decision to provide security agencies with the so-called telecom data to help them investigate assassination attempts against MP Butros Harb and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

The telecom data has since been handed over to the security apparatuses.

Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad’s announcement that the national defense strategy was not currently necessary because Lebanon was still in the liberation stage, was another reason for the March 14 alliance’s boycott of the last session on July 24.