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Hezbollah: What we heard from Feb 14 wasn't a response
Mohamad Shmaysani
Hezbollah deputy secretary general Sheikh Naim Kssem said that what the opposition had heard from the February 14 bloc was not a response to Speaker Nabih Berri's initiative.
Sheikh Kassem was speaking during a gathering with a French ? Italian ? Malaysian delegation marking the 25th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres. He said that the opposition will wait for material steps by the February 14 camp, but will not deal in advance with their position. His eminence firmly condemned the interference of Terej Roed-Larsen, the overseer of UN resolution 1559, in the presidential question. He warned the authority bloc against taking Lebanon to the wrong place and called on them to return to their conscience to save the country.
Leaders of the February 14 political group met Wednesday overnight at former President Amine Gemayel's residence in Bikfayya, but did not give a clear response to Berri's initiative.
Hezbollah deputy secretary general Sheikh Naim Kssem said that what the opposition had heard from the February 14 bloc was not a response to Speaker Nabih Berri's initiative.
Sheikh Kassem was speaking during a gathering with a French ? Italian ? Malaysian delegation marking the 25th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres. He said that the opposition will wait for material steps by the February 14 camp, but will not deal in advance with their position. His eminence firmly condemned the interference of Terej Roed-Larsen, the overseer of UN resolution 1559, in the presidential question. He warned the authority bloc against taking Lebanon to the wrong place and called on them to return to their conscience to save the country.
Leaders of the February 14 political group met Wednesday overnight at former President Amine Gemayel's residence in Bikfayya, but did not give a clear response to Berri's initiative.
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"March 14 Forces urge the opposition ? to spare the country the dilemma of reciprocal conditions which hampers the dialogue and does not guarantee avoiding a presidential vacuum," added the statement.
Apparently, the ruling bloc did not set conditions for consensus and dialogue, but in fact it listed a number of conditions that would pull the wheel backwards starting from the fundamental decisions adopted by all-party national talks as well as U.N. Security Council resolutions. This indicates that the ruling bloc has linked any presidential election to every Lebanese crisis, without showing any will to take material steps to solve the most dangerous political crisis in Lebanon since decades.
presidential election as key to restoring political stability and implementing decisions previously adopted by all-party national talks as well as U.N. Security Council resolutions. But the statement read by MP Saad Hariri, once again called on the opposition to make more concessions, without taking a similar step.
Berri had announced that the opposition was willing to drop its demand for a national unity government on condition the country's feuding political parties agreed on a consensus presidential candidate. He had suggested that to solve the months long political crisis in Lebanon, a consensus president would be elected first and a government of national unity would be later agreed on.
Berri has called for a special session of the legislature on September 25 to pick a successor to President Emile Lahoud. The 128 deputies have from September 25 to November 24 to elect a Christian Maronite president. The Speaker insisted, however, that the president would have to be elected by a two-third quorum in parliament, according to the constitution.