Salam meets Berri in Ain el-Tineh, says his doors 'always open' for Hezbollah

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Monday that his "doors are always open" for Hezbollah after he met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh, as the gap between Salam and Berri's ally Hezbollah seemed to widen over the group's disarmament.

"I am leaving plenty of room for cordiality with (Hezbollah MP) Hajj Mohammad Raad and my doors are always open for him and Hezbollah," Salam said.

Raad had recently criticized Salam for recently omitting the word "Resistance" from the "Resistance and Liberation Day" holiday in one of his statements, but said he would not respond to Salam's comments on Hezbollah's disarmament "to preserve what’s left of cordiality."

Berri on Friday told local al-Joumhouria newspaper that "if Salam escalates, we will escalate and if he chooses to calm things down, we will calm them down," after Salam said in recent comments that the era of "exporting the Iranian revolution has ended" and that the state "will not remain silent over any arms outside the state’s control".

In his interview with al-Joumhouria, Berri also urged the government to prioritize the construction of war-hit regions, saying it's the government's responsibility "whether it likes it or not."

Berri had met last Friday with President Joseph Aoun at the Baabda Palace, in talks he described as "excellent."