Report: National Dialogue Session to be Held even if March 14 Boycotts it
President Michel Suleiman does not intend to postpone a national dialogue session next week if the March 14 opposition coalition boycotts it for the second time in a row, An Nahar daily reported Saturday.
The newspaper said the session will be held on Thursday at Beiteddine palace whether March 14 officials attend or not but Suleiman would not brief the conferees on his view of the country’s defense strategy in case of another boycott.
Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader Fouad Saniora is expected to visit the president early next week to hand him a March 14 memo that sets the opposition’s stance from its participation in the all-party talks.
The last session on July 24 was postponed over the rejection of opposition representatives to attend the dialogue.
March 14 had tied its participation to a government decision to provide security agencies with the so-called telecom data to help them investigate assassination attempts against MP Butros Harb and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.
The telecom data has since been handed over to the security apparatuses.
Another reason for the boycott was Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad’s announcement that the national defense strategy is not currently necessary because Lebanon is still in the liberation stage.
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