The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Final preparations were made Monday for the launch of National Dialogue sessions in Parliament this week, but the prospects of a breakthrough appear small as rival groups set conditions on the all-inclusive talks.
A roundtable was placed in the Parliament hall where Speaker Nabih Berri will host the talks Wednesday. It is the same space where the speaker chaired National Dialogue sessions in 2006.
The table will have 16 chairs in the front row for heads of the various blocs, and a similar number in the back for their aides. A small Lebanese flag has been positioned in the middle of the table.
At the opening of the session, Berri will deliver a short speech explaining what pushed him to host the talks, and their importance given the current regional and international situation.
Sitting next to Berri will be Prime Minister Tammam Salam. The pair will be flanked by the heads of the parliamentary blocs, arranged from largest to smallest.
The Central News Agency said that bloc leaders will raise their issues and concerns once Berri finishes his speech.
Quoting parliamentary sources, CNA said that attendees may discuss reshuffling the agenda.
The dialogue will explore ways to end the presidential interregnum, resume Parliament’s and Cabinet’s work, and pass a new election law and legislation allowing foreigners of Lebanese origin to receive nationality. The talks will also cover administrative decentralization and means to support the Army and Internal Security Forces.
Future bloc MP Ahmad Fatfat said that an agreement should be reached on the presidential deadlock before moving onto other items.
“The main issue on the table is the presidency. An agreement should be reached on the presidency in order to gradually move to other items,” he told the Voice of Lebanon radio station. “Otherwise, we will hit a dead end.”
The lawmaker said the March 14 coalition would decide on whether to keep attending the talks if participants failed to agree on means of ending the presidential deadlock.
“It is [too] early to talk about intending to withdraw from the dialogue,” the lawmaker said.
Berri was quoted in Monday’s newspapers as saying that if participants do not reach an agreement on the presidential deadlock, they could move to other items. He added that if they could reach agreement on an electoral law, it could lead to the holding of parliamentary elections and then to the election of a president.
MP Ammar Houri, also from the Future bloc, said that when Parliament extended its term for the second time in Nov. 2014, it agreed that a new election law would only be passed when a president was elected, in order to preserve his right to have a say in the issue. “The presidential election is the solution to all other issues, including parliamentary elections,” Houri told a local radio station.
His comments come as Hezbollah has reiterated its support for Michel Aoun’s candidacy. The March 14 coalition opposes Aoun’s presidential bid.
Elsewhere, French President Francois Hollande announced that he would visit Lebanon after the United Nations General Assembly meeting, in order to inspect Syrian refugee camps and meet Lebanese political officials.
The announcement came Monday during his bi-annual press conference at the Elysée presidential palace in Paris, where Hollande said his country would host 24,000 new refugees over the next two years. Asked about the situation in Lebanon, Hollande said, “One in three residents of Lebanon is a displaced [person] or a refugee … we should be on Lebanon’s side.”
A French diplomatic source told The Daily Star there was not yet a time-frame for the president’s trip, but that it would be after the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, which concludes on Sept. 30.
The source said the French leader was particularly interested in Lebanon, noting, “President Hollande’s first visit to the Middle East as president in 2012 was to Lebanon.” The source added that Hollande’s announcement “expresses the willingness of France, and its determination, to act concretely and support Lebanon at the political and every other level.”
The source explained that Hollande would discuss with officials the ways in which France could help Lebanon bear the consequences of the spillover from the war in neighboring Syria, and “overcome the challenges posed by the huge number of refugees.” He emphasized that this support would include not just help for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, but also to their Lebanese host communities.