Wassim Mroueh| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Officials from the Future Movement and Hezbollah will sit face to face Tuesday, marking the start of a dialogue aimed at easing sectarian tensions in Lebanon and paving the way for the election of a president.
Speaking to The Daily Star Monday, a Hezbollah official said that the party would be represented in the talks by Hussein Khalil, the political aide to party leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, along with Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan and MP Hasan Fadlallah.
Nader Hariri, chief of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s staff, plus Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk and lawmaker Samir Jisr will attend on behalf of the Future Movement.
The main goals of the dialogue between the two bitter rivals are to reduce Sunni-Shiite tensions in the country, pave the way for ending a seven-month vacuum in the presidency, boost efforts to combat the rising threat of terrorism, facilitate an agreement on a new electoral law and energize stagnant state institutions.
Future Movement sources said the party would focus on the need to elect a consensus president, a task which has proven a Gordian knot for Lebanese politicians.
Hezbollah backs Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun for the presidency, a candidate strongly opposed by the Future Movement and the rest of the March 14 parties, who support Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea’s candidacy.
Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been preparing for the talks over the past months, will host the first dialogue session at his residence in the Beirut neighborhood of Ain al-Tineh at 6 p.m.
Also attending the talks will be Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, Berri’s political aide.
Quoting sources familiar with the preparations for dialogue, the Central News Agency said Berri would deliver a speech at the outset of the session, in which he would praise Hezbollah and the Future Movement for launching the talks and highlight the positive impact the move would have on national unity and coexistence.
Visiting regional and international officials have also hailed the upcoming deliberations.
“I would like to praise and highly appreciate the political and national initiative launched by Speaker Berri in this phase, which paved the way for the brotherly and constructive dialogue between influential political parties on the Lebanese arena,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said during a joint news conference after holding talks with Berri.“We consider that this national initiative and this dialogue will help in further uniting the views of various influential political parties in the Lebanese arena, which will solve several remaining political problems,” Larijani added.
Larijani said that every regional power that believed in Lebanon should focus on addressing Israel and the rampant terrorism in the region, which, according to Larijani, were “two sides of the same coin.”
For his part, Berri said he agreed with Iran’s speaker on how airstrikes in Iraq and Syria by the international coalition against ISIS would fail to resolve the ongoing security challenges posed by the radical group.
In separate remarks at a news conference at Phoenicia Hotel, Larijani said his country was trying to help Lebanon secure the release of its 25 captive servicemen, but said their jihadi captors were still receiving foreign support.
“Efforts we are making regarding the captured servicemen always focus on the captors in a bid to resolve the case,” Larijani said. “We are doing what we should do but the primary responsibility is that of states supporting these [jihadi] groups.”
The Iranian official also ruled out the possibility that ISIS could take over Lebanese territory.
Answering a question about Iran’s opinion of French efforts aimed at ending the Lebanese presidential vacuum, Larijani said Iran supported all initiatives with that goal.
Reaching a solution for the seven-month-long presidential deadlock was largely the responsibility of Lebanon’s Christians, he said, adding that it was not Iran’s right to get involved in the matter.
Larijani also held talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam and met with a delegation of Palestinian factions.
Saudi Ambassador Ali Awad Asiri congratulated all Lebanese and Christians in particular ahead of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, expressing his hope that 2015 would be a time for dialogue and national unity.
“We all hope that the upcoming phase will witness positive steps for Lebanon as a result of good intentions and the political activity carried out by many parties, so that we welcome a new year that will be a starting point for constructive dialogue, combined efforts and the strengthening of national unity,” Asiri said in a statement.
In other developments Monday, President of the Italian Senate Pietro Grasso expressed hopes after meeting Salam that the Future-Hezbollah talks could solve domestic problems. Grasso said that he was able to voice Italy’s solidarity with Lebanon over the ongoing hostage crisis, and called for the election of a president as soon as possible.