March 14 to Make Official Stance from Dialogue after New Year

The March 14 opposition coalition will inform President Michel Suleiman about its official stance from the national dialogue session set to be held on January 7 after the New Year, sources said Sunday.

The informed sources told An Nahar newspaper that the alliance's leaders are waiting for the president's return from his vacation abroad to hold consultations and inform him about their position from the all-party talks.

The hopes for holding the new round of dialogue on January 7 have already tumbled over statements made by several opposition figures, including al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader Fouad Saniora and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

Saniora set a new condition on Friday for March 14's attendance of the talks.

The opposition “will return to the national dialogue once Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announces his readiness to discuss putting (his party's) arms under the authority of the Lebanese state,” he said.

The last session that was set to be held on November 28 was postponed after the opposition boycotted it for its refusal to sit at the dialogue table with Hizbullah and for its call to the cabinet's resignation.

On Thursday, Geagea said in an open letter to the president: “Our boycott of dialogue is directed against the powers that are employing the talks to practice intimidation and security and political blackmail.”

The Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance “is using the dialogue to impose its illegitimate arms to achieve political gains that it failed to obtain through intimidation and assassinations,” he said.

Despite the opposition’s stance, Suleiman is insisting on holding the national dialogue, saying March 14 should propose an alternative to its rejection to attend the all-party talks.