PSP Delegation Meets Tashnag Party: No Substitute for Dialogue

A Progressive Socialist Party delegation aimed at discussing party leader MP Walid Jumblat's initiative to resume national dialogue held talks on Friday with the Tashnaq Party, reported An Nahar daily Saturday.

Tashnag MP Hagop Pakradounian said after the talks: “There can be no substitute for national dialogue.”

“We adopt any initiative by the PSP to resume the all-party talks,” he stressed.

He revealed that the gatherers addressed all aspects of the dialogue, noting that the all-party talks are being obstructed.

“We have always backed dialogue and we reject tense political rhetoric that does not help ease the disputes in Lebanon,” he remarked.

Secretary Zafer Nasser and Ministers Wael Abou Faour and Aleddine Terro represented the PSP at the meeting, while the Tashnag party was represented by the head of its executive committee Hovik Mikhtarian and Pakradounian.

For his part, Terro said after the meeting: “The talks were very good and we enjoy common ground with the Tashnag over a number of issues, including the dialogue and electoral law.”

“All the Lebanese seek calm and stability, but differences emerged when conditions were placed over the return to the dialogue,” he explained.

The March 14-led opposition had announced its boycott of the all-party talks, called for by President Michel Suleiman, over their failure to address Hizbullah's arms and other main issues.

It had said that the talks had veered away from their main purpose of tackling a national defense strategy and the spread arms in Lebanon.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea had also rejected the talks deeming them a “distraction,” adding that he refuses to sit at the same table as Hizbullah, which he said is linked to a number of assassinations and failed assassination attempts in Lebanon over the past few years.

The national dialogue was resumed in June 2011.

Jumblat's initiative, which he issued in November, focuses on the need for the return of all political powers to dialogue, ending any boycott, and halting the tense media exchanges between the rival factions.

The assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan on October 19 further deepened the gap between the March 14 and 8 alliances.

The opposition boycotted political activity with its foes after it blamed Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government for covering up the crime, calling on it to step down and saying it would not sit at the same dialogue table with Hizbullah.

The PSP delegation has so far met with President Michel Suleiman, Miqati, Speaker Nabih Berri, former Premier Omar Karami, Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh, and Hizbullah, Jamaa Islamiya, Lebanese Democratic Party, and Lebanese Forces officials.