Report: Nasrallah Met Berri ahead of Expected Talks with Aoun
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has held a “lengthy” meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri and talks tackled all the developments of the presidential file and Berri's “political and sectarian concerns,” a media report said on Sunday.
“The meeting was positive and it tackled the stance of the AMAL Movement leader,” ad-Diyar newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying.
It said that there is a “full agreement that each party would respect the commitments of the other party regarding the presidential candidate.”
The sources noted that there are no agreements on “all the other essential issues, such as the re-designation of ex-PM Saad Hariri as premier, the cabinet line-up or the distribution of the portfolios.”
“These are essential issues that Berri, Hizbullah, the Progressive Socialist Party and other parties cannot leave to (Free Patriotic Movement chief) Minister Jebran Bassil and (Hariri's adviser) Mr. Nader Hariri,” the sources added.
“These issues have to do with all the influential political forces in the country and political disputes and obstruction would surface” should these forces be excluded, the sources warned.
Ad-Diyar also noted that a tripartite meeting will be held between Nasrallah, Berri and FPM founder MP Michel Aoun “hours before the election of the new president.”
Berri, who has openly declared that he opposes the election of Aoun, has pledged that his bloc will take part in the October 31 electoral session and that he will not try to strip the meeting of its quorum.
Berri's aides have accused Aoun and Hariri of striking a “bilateral” agreement that would marginalize Shiites in power, allegations that Aoun and his movement have denied.
Aoun was tipped to become president after Hariri formally endorsed his nomination on Thursday.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.
Hariri had launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Hizbullah's ally and Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.
The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid have argued that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/218968 |