By Hadi Khatib
Lebanonwire staff

Participants left the dialogue table on Tuesday with assurances that the rescheduling of the talks until next Monday was just a needed period of review and evaluation of highly important issues. However, some of Lebanon’s dailies spoke of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s dissatisfaction with statements made by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat from Washington to which he received no reassurances to the contrary from Future Movement leader Saad Hariri or Information Minister Ghazi Aridi.

Al Mustaqbal daily said officials attending the dialogue were adamant the rescheduling of the talks should not be understood as an escalation “to blow up dialogue” but rather as “an opportunity to gather one’s thoughts and make courageous decisions about critical issues in order to achieve success.”

Speaker Nabih Berri, the talks’ moderator, insisted that the postponement was “not related” to Jumblat’s comments made Monday, where the PSP leader described Hezbollah as “a militia” which should lay down its arms just as other militias did in 1993 and that the Shebaa Farms are not Lebanese, also asking for the US’s help in imposing severe sanctions on Syria.

“Jumblat’s comments are not new,” Berri said.

“We have reached a critical stage in the dialogue with respect to articles two and three, in other words UN 1559 and Syrian-Lebanese relations, and perhaps by Monday we should have answers and consent on these issues,” Berri told reporters following the suspension of talks yesterday.

Hariri also used a number of reassuring words to pacify anxious reporters telling them “every party needs time to consult with their allies, and not rush into decisions where Lebanon’s future hangs in the balance,” adding “the dialogue is successful and will succeed.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea also said “when it came to really sensitive issues, we need to take a step back and take our time deciding and added “as for the presidency, we have made great progress, as we are now exchanging several names of potential candidates for the job, and this brief respite will enable us to come back with firm and final decisions.”

Ad-Diyar reported Geagea as saying that they had not yet reached consensus on Free Patriotic leader Michel Aoun as a presidential candidate.

US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman announced on Monday his country’s support for the dialogue “which is directly tackling the issue of how to implement UN 1559, through officials with wide representation of the Lebanese people.”

“This is a purely Lebanese dialogue without US, French or Saudi participation and any foreign interference,” Feltman said.

Daily Ad-Diyar said it was Jumblat’s comments which almost blew the dialogue out of the water, if it wasn’t for the veteran intervention of Berri, who saw it best to reschedule and cool things down.

The daily said circulating media reports were indicating, following the temporary stoppage, that Nasrallah did not receive any comforting words from either Hariri or Aridi that Jumblat’s opinions were not shared on the dialogue table.

“If there is a roundtable in Washington, then why are we here. We hear one thing on this table, and another thing from oversees, and we need to know what the real positions of people here is before we proceed,” Nasrallah is believed to have said according to the same daily.

Ad-Diyar added that when Nasrallah did not get a clear response, he left the meeting and was later followed by Hariri, Berri and Aoun.

Berri later asked Aridi about Jumblat’s arrival, to which Aridi said “I believe Friday.” Daily Al-Balad corroborated Ad-Diyar’s story with similar accounts of what took place inside the parliament but adding that since Nasrallah restricted his travels for security reasons, he could no longer attend until this issue is resolved.

Al-Balad further said that Hariri was not able to convince Jumblat to renounce what he said, and thus failed to also quell Nasrallah’s concerns and distaste with what took place.

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