Mustaqbal: Limiting Possession of Arms to State, Forming Unbiased Govt. Basis for Resuming Dialogue
The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc praised on Tuesday President Michel Suleiman’s call for the resumption of the national dialogue, noting that it is a proper way to tackle pending disputes.
It noted however after its weekly meeting: “Limiting the possession of arms to the state and forming an unbiased government are the basis for resuming the dialogue.”
“The bloc is not keen on resuming unproductive dialogue with hidden preconditions,” it added.
“Any dialogue must take into account the need to limit the possession of arms in Lebanon to the state,” it said in a statement.
Suleiman had issued on Monday an invitation to all the concerned powers to resume the national dialogue on June 11.
The March 14-led opposition had voiced its support for the dialogue on condition that Hizbullah’s possession of arms be the sole topic of discussion.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had said that the party is ready to resume the talks without preconditions.
The current government is unfit to oversee the talks because of its bias to Syria and its “great failures in different endeavors,” added the Mustaqbal bloc.
“This government serves to increase the tensions between the Lebanese through wasting the role of the security and political institutions,” it continued.
“Its practices have had a detrimental effect on the country’s economic sector and Lebanon’s sovereignty, which it has given up to the Syrian regime as demonstrated by its failure to respond to the Syrian government’s letter to the U.N. in which accused Lebanon of harboring terrorists,” it remarked.
On May 18, the Syrian Ambassador to the U.N. Bashar al-Jaafari issued a letter to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon claiming that some Lebanese areas near the Lebanese-Syrian border “have become an incubator for terrorist elements from the al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood organizations who are tampering with the security of Syria and its citizens.”
Addressing the kidnapping of Lebanese pilgrims in Syria a week ago, the Mustaqbal bloc condemned the incident, saying that it “rejects such practices regardless of which side commits them because they target innocent Lebanese civilians.”
The bloc hoped that the pilgrims will be returned safely to their families, praising the national unity demonstrated by the various Lebanese factions over this issue.
The 11 pilgrims were kidnapped in Aleppo last Tuesday as they were returning to Lebanon by land from a pilgrimage in Iran.
Source: Naharnet
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