Report: Berri to ‘Bridge Gap’ between Hariri, Jumblat

Speaker Nabih Berri has reportedly launched mediation efforts to bridge the gap between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

The daily said that Berri has dispatched MPs Anwar al-Khalil and Yassin Jaber where they met with Jumblat on Tuesday.

Although sources at the Grand Serail--of Hariri- “acknowledged Berri’s efforts,” but they said they had not seen any AMAL Movement official visit the Grand Serail, according to the newspaper.

Moreover, AMAL Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil has conveyed a message from Berri to Hariri on the sidelines of the ministerial policy statement meeting a day earlier, it added. However the sources did not elaborate on the message’s content.

A war of words erupted lately between Jumblat and Hariri following the formation of the new government.

Jumblat had lashed out in recent days at both the Premier and FPM chief MP Jebran Bassil.

“The state is not your property,” he told them in a tweet on Monday.

“We have noticed unilateralism in the formation of the government as if the premiership was nearly absent and as if Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has laid out the broad lines of the cabinet’s policy statement and the upcoming period. This violates the Taef Accord and is tantamount to playing with fire,” he said on Sunday.

Hariri and Bassil snapped back at Jumblat, accusing him of seeking to obstruct the government's work.