Berri, Jumblat Working for Hizbullah-Mustaqbal Dialogue

Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat have said they are exerting efforts to launch dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement.

Local dailies published on Monday quoted Berri as saying that he and Jumblat were seeking to open channels of dialogue between the rival parties.

The speaker told his visitors that he met last week with al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora and al-Mustaqbal leader ex-PM Saad Hariri's advisor Nader Hariri for that purpose.

“I am still seeking (to hold) such a dialogue. I am not pessimistic,” Berri said.

He stressed that the foundations for the talks were established when Hariri and Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made signs of willingness to discuss ways to resolve the country's crises.

Jumblat also told As Safir newspaper that he and Berri were “interested in launching any dialogue that organizes differences and contributes to ending the presidential deadlock.”

“Berri and I agree on this concept and we will remain together,” he said.

Lebanon has been without a head of state since May when President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended with the rival MPs unable to find a successor.

The March 14 alliances has backed the candidacy of Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea while Nasrallah officially announced last week that the March 8 camp's sole candidate is Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun.

In his remarks to his visitors, Berri announced his full support for the security plan that the Lebanese army is implementing in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The speaker said he had been calling for this plan for a while. “Our people in the Bekaa have been harmed by kidnappings and robberies.”

“There is no political cover on anyone, neither from parties nor from clans,” he said.

Berri stated that on several occasions he had interfered to pursue wanted criminals and the release of individuals kidnapped in return for ransom.

He mockingly added that he “almost got to be the head of the movement of abductees.”