Jumblat Coordinates Efforts with Suleiman to Reach Initiative to End Political Deadlock

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat's initiative to end the political deadlock in Lebanon between the rival March 8 and 14 camps is being coordinated with President Michel Suleiman, reported As Safir newspaper on Tuesday.

His efforts are taking place with the “complete coordination” Suleiman, he told the daily, with a PSP delegation set to visit the presidential palace later on Tuesday.

“We believe that dialogue is the basis for tackling the crisis because problems cannot be solved through a boycott,” he explained.

He revealed that the proposal will encompass all political powers, civil society organizations, and syndicates.

Meanwhile, Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour, of Jumblat's National Struggle Front bloc, told As Safir that all powers will receive a political document, which would be announced beforehand by the MP, that will include the initiative.

The document will be delivered to the political powers after the Independence Day celebrations on November 22 and upon Suleiman's return from a visit to the Vatican scheduled for the end of the month.

Al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Tuesday that a PSP delegation that includes Ministers Ghazi al-Aridi, Alaeddine Terro, and Abou Faour is scheduled to meet with Suleiman at the Baabda Palace on Tuesday.

Sources from the party said that the initiative to end the crisis will be based on “dialogue with all sides and openness to the other.”

The delegation is set to hold talks with a number of political powers during the next few days, added the PSP sources.

“How the other powers choose to deal with the proposal is up to them and they therefore will assume the responsibilities of their decisions should they be negative,” they stressed.

Jumblat said on Monday that he would not personally make contacts with March 8 majority and opposition members as part of the PSP initiative to resolve the country's political crisis.

He confirmed that the PSP and National Struggle Front would launch an initiative to lure back the March 14 opposition alliance to the national dialogue table and seek the formation of a national salvation government.

Lebanon plunged in a political crisis on October 19 when Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch chief Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan was assassinated.

March 14 boycotted the parliament after it blamed Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government for the killing and said it would not sit at the same dialogue table with Hizbullah.