| Lebanon on the verge of
ending or 'institutionalizing' dialogue By Farid Chedid
Lebanonwire
As Lebanon leader's prepare to meet again under the umbrella of what has been termed as
the National Dialogue Roundtable, the question that promptly poses itself is whether
Friday's session will survive the recent war of words between the participants, or whether
it will be their last.
The first peril to the session and perhaps to the entire dialogue is the insistence by the
Leader of the "Change and Reform Bloc" General Michel Aoun on hearing from the
participants their answer to his nomination for presidency, and the consequent possibility
of his withdrawing from session if the answer is negative.
Commenting on this possibility, Public Works and Transport Minister Mohammed Safadi said,
"in this case the current dialogue session would be the last because a personality
representing a large segment of society would have left the table, while the aim is to
have the majority of the people represented," daily An-Nahar quoted him as saying
The other alternatives to this calamity would be one of two: Endorsing the nomination of
General Aoun for presidency by the March 14 Coalition and consequently by Hezbollah and
Amal Movement, thus giving him over 120 parliamentary votes, or finding a passive
solution to the dilemma by endorsing Lahoud's continuation till the end of his tenure,
just by failing to agree on an alternative.
However, the course events are taking points to a general consensus
on the necessity of continuing on with dialogue to the point of 'institutionalizing' the
practice, as Speaker Berri was said to be aiming at, according to daily Al-Balad.
If pushed to the end, this practice would, functionally speaking, lead to the formation of
what may be later termed as "The Council of Lebanon Leaders" - an institution
which will built itself on the notion of ruling Lebanon by consensus through both,
agreeing to agree and agreeing to disagree.
Though still in the making, the achievements so far reached by Lebanon leaders touched
upon three basic issues:
- Establishing diplomatic relations and delineating borders between
Lebanon and Syria.
- Removing Palestinians weapons outside camps.
- Setting an international tribunal to rule on the assassination of
former prime minister Rafic Hariri and others.
However, the impending question on points one and two above is
whether it would be possible to overcome the obstacles posed by Syria in this regard,
resolve Hezbollah's play on words as to whether the participants have agreed on
'specifying' or on 'delineating' the Shebaa Farms borders, and tackle the refusal by the
leader of the radical Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP-GC) Ahmad
Jibril to surrender Palestinian arms outside camps before Lebanon attends to the
humanitarian aspect of the issue.
Th remaining two issues, namely the presidency and Hezbollah's arms, or what has
recently been termed as 'Lebanon's defense strategy', will also be on the table, with a
tendency to agree on the principle of cohabitation with Lahoud, reviving and boosting the
performance of the government with focus on resolving Lebanon's economic crisis, and
indefinitely extending dialogue on the issue of Hezbollah's arms. |
