BEIRUT: Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said Friday he is still undecided on whether to attend a new round of talks with Hezbollah following unprecedented political escalation between his Future Movement and the party that threatened to unravel their nearly year-old dialogue.
Meanwhile, French Senate President Gerard Larcher voiced support and concern over Lebanon’s refugee crisis and announced that the French interior minister would visit Lebanon next week to help tackle the refugee issue which is draining the country’s fragile infrastructure.
Machnouk’s announcement came shortly after he met with Speaker Nabih Berri at his residence to discuss, among other things, next week’s dialogue session between the Future Movement and Hezbollah.
“My remarks from Ain al-Tineh don’t mean that I have decided to participate in dialogue,” Machnouk tweeted. He said he was holding consultations, starting with Berri, to take the appropriate decision on the dialogue with Hezbollah.
Senior officials of the Future Movement and Hezbollah are scheduled to meet at Ain al-Tineh residence Tuesday as part of their ongoing dialogue aimed at defusing sectarian and political tensions, exacerbated by the 4-year-old war in Syria.
Since they began the talks sponsored by Berri last December, the Future-Hezbollah dialogue has been marred by several rounds of political escalation caused by sharp differences over the 16-month-old presidential deadlock and regional conflicts, namely Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria and the Saudi-led war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The two rival influential parties are also mulling a mechanism to facilitate the election of a successor to former President Michel Sleiman.
Machnouk Wednesday indirectly hit back at Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah who said he didn’t care if the Future ministers resigned from the government or walked out of national dialogue in Parliament.
The latest Future-Hezbollah feud was triggered by Machnouk’s speech last week in which he said that the Future Movement would quit the government and withdraw from national dialogue if the Cabinet’s work continued to be obstructed by the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah. Machnouk was responding to FPM leader MP Michel Aoun, who declared that his two ministers would not return to the Cabinet until a new Army commander and a new military council are appointed.
Following his talks with Berri, Machnouk stressed that national dialogue among rival political leaders is essential to maintain civil peace.
A new round of all-party talks is slated to be held in Parliament Monday focusing on the presidential crisis, the first item on the agenda.
“Dialogue is part of civil peace in Lebanon. Today, we need Lebanese unity and the continuation of civil peace more than ever before,” Machnouk told reporters at Ain al-Tineh.”
He said he discussed with Berri the failure of a government security plan to crack down on outlaws and criminals in the northern Bekaa region. He said Berri had promised to follow up the implementation of the security plan with the Lebanese Army and all political parties in the region. “I received Berri’s support for the implementation of the Bekaa plan, and his position is reassuring,” Machnouk said. He admitted that the plan had been a failure, saying that 245 cases of kidnapping and thefts have occurred in the Bekaa region in the past 14 months.
In his speech last week, Machnouk blamed Hezbollah, which enjoys wide support in the Bekaa Valley, for the failure of the security plan approved by the government in February.
Separately, the president of the French Senate said the Syrian refugee crisis dominated his talks with Berri and announced that French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve would visit Lebanon next week to help tackle the crisis.
“You know we are Lebanon’s friends. It is normal for stability and security in Lebanon to top our talks,” Larcher told reporters after meeting Berri. He said discussions of the political situation in Lebanon covered the refugee influx resulting from the war in Syria.
“This [refugee] issue is confusing Europe on how to deal with it. No doubt, no country could endure what Lebanon has as a result of this issue,” Larcher said. “Lebanon is facing an exceptional challenge amid this large number of refugees and it does not have the capabilities to take them in.”
At least 1.1 million Syrian refugees are registered with the U.N. in Lebanon, but Prime Minister Tammam Salam has put the number at 1.5 million.
Larcher praised the state’s efforts to cope with the refugee influx, calling for political solidarity. “The main support shouldn’t only be material, but also political solidarity and a solution to the crisis,” he said.
Asked what France can do to help Lebanon cope with refugee crisis, Larcher said: “The French interior minister will visit Lebanon next week. We are very much interested in this case [refugees] and the enormous burden that Lebanon is enduring alone.
Larcher received a warm welcome by Berri upon his arrival at Ain al-Tineh. They held a meeting in the presence of the French ambassador Emmanuel Bonne and the accompanying delegation.
“We discussed the situation in the region, as Lebanon is surrounded by countries witnessing bloody conflicts. What we must be keen on is to maintain the security situation.
“We heard from Speaker Berri the need to resume legislative action and for the Lebanese themselves to find a solution to the presidential election issue,” he added.
Berri later hosted a lunch banquet in honor of the French visitor. It was attended by Salam, Aoun, former President Amine Gemayel, head of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Committee MP Abdel-Latif Zein, head of the French-Lebanese Friendship Committee MP Michel Murr, Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad and other lawmakers.