Berri Prioritizes Presidential Crisis, Warns to Suspend Dialogue if more Parties Boycott it
Speaker Nabih Berri has reiterated that the presidential deadlock was the first item on the agenda of the dialogue that is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, warning he would suspend his initiative if more than one party decided to boycott the talks.
Berri told his visitors that he would propose the discussion of the presidential crisis and then move to another item if the rival parties failed to agree on it.
“Who knows? We might agree on the electoral law based on proportionality … and then on holding the parliamentary elections,” he said in remarks published in several newspapers on Monday.
“We could then immediately elect a president. This way, we would succeed in Lebanonizing the solution,” Berri added.
The speaker rejected criticism that the March 8 alliance is more represented than March 14 at the dialogue table.
“There is no majority or minority for anyone in the dialogue because it will take its decisions based on consensus and not voting,” he said.
The heads of the rival parliamentary blocs, Prime Minister Tammam Salam and several other officials are expected to attend the first round of the dialogue that Berri will chair on Wednesday.
Only the Lebanese Forces announced it would boycott the talks.
Berri said, however, that the parties supporting the election of a president and the approval of an electoral draft-law, should head to the parliament and not boycott it.
The speaker warned that he would suspend his initiative if any party other than the LF decided not to attend the talks.
He also stressed that in case the rival blocs failed to take decisions, then the dialogue would be seen as “a failure for all and not just Nabih Berri.”
The talks will be held as civil society groups are planning to hold a mass demonstration in downtown Beirut on the same day.
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